I went to Night 1, and overall, I had a great time. Basement East is fairly small and was packed to the brim. For the first 30 or so minutes, my buddy and I were constantly being asked to let people through since they wanted to get to the merch table and that was very distracting. I'll never really understand why someone would want to buy merch of an artist they came to see while said artist is performing. I did expect the set to be more cover heavy but the Dying Star tracks were welcome since it's my favorite and this was my first time seeing him. Most of the crowd seemed to be more excited when he played originals but Teenage Dirtbag, Complicated, and All Too Well all got big receptions. A small, but loud, minority of us held it down for the others, especially LGFUAD.
“Only One” and “Slide” are great though. This is definitely better than volume 1. I really wish he’d pressed 1+2 onto a 12”… guess it wouldn’t have all fit on one record but maybe just drop the lesser “Teenage Dirtbag”.
These new covers are just another reminder of why Ruston is one of my favourite songwriters and an inspiration when it comes to writing. His Slide rendition is so good that it's going straight to my acoustic playlist.
probably incredibly stupid question how can I get those live recordings onto my Apple Music library lol
haven’t thought of dude much since the last one did nothing for me but the first two records still rule so i’ll check it
Last one had 3-4 great songs and then a lot of meh but he’s banked a lot of goodwill from me with how good the two albums before it were
I am always pumped for new Ruston. Dying Star is his best by far but each album has its own unique sound and I’m excited to see where he goes from here. Just more harmonica plz.