Ekoostik Hookah + Leftover Salmon
Madison is a great little city, a capitol city with a great domed structure at its heart, plus a large well-considered university as another achoring institution. The area boasts two fresh water lakes, great indie coffee houses and Frank Lloyd Wright public structures. Darby and I enjoyed antipasto and local beer at Cafe Montmarte in the downtown square area, then found our way to the Barrymore Theatre for the show. The Barrymore had Sierra Nevada on tap so we grabbed a few and headed for two seats relatively near the stage. The Hookah, a jamband from Columbus, OH for some reason rubbed us the wrong way on this particular night. Coming from a Grateful Dead headspace, they deliver some nice licks and tight compositions, but there was a pretentiousness in the air, and a hollow sound. Thankfully, all that was put behind us as Leftover graced the stage and picked up the Saturday night energy of the crowd. There were several brilliant moments in this Salmon show, one that stands out is Vince’s rendition of “Ina Goda Da Vida,” by Iron Butterfly, out of which he sang some kind of Germanic marching anthem, with which I was not familiar, although I was deeply captivated.