On Friday April 17, I finally caught veteran Portland folk-rock group Blitzen Trapper live at City Winery. It wasn’t just any Blitzen Trapper show, but a night dedicated to Neil Young’s Harvest, which the band covered in full in honor of their limited release for Record Store Day this year, which was a recording of their performance covering Harvest at a show in Portland last fall. Thinking about it, what better band to cover Harvest than Blitzen Trapper, who have the alt-country folk rock style down pat for many years. Demand for the shows were so high that there was both an early and late shows, both which sold out comfortably.
There was no opening band to be found, but rather an opening section of the set of Blitzen Trapper songs to warm the crowd up. These were “Black River Killer,” “Taking It Easy Too Long,” “Love The Way You Walk Away,” and “Astronaut.” By then, the crowd was warmed up for Harvest. Lead singer and guitarist Eric Earley took lead vocals on most of the covers, but vocal duties were also shared amongst keyboardist Marty Marquis and drummer Brian Adrian Koch. They did the classics of Harvest plenty of justice, staying faithful while also adding plenty of their own Blitzen Trapper flourishes to give the performance that extra special feeling that it deserved. They finished off the regular set with their own tracks “Big Black Bird” and an epic 10-minute fully extended version of “Thirsty Man,” an astonishing performance that reminded me of how hard these guys can jam out when they want to.
They returned for a three song encore that started with “Stranger In A Strange Land” a song that Earley blanked on a few times during the performance, as they hadn’t played it in a while. The crowd picked him up on that one, but there was no assistance necessary on “Furr,” other than the natural singalong that came with it. They finished things off with a brand new song called “Rock and Roll” that sent the loud and chatty crowd out into the night, fully satisfied with their cover treatment of one of the best albums of all time, as well as the Blitzen Trapper originals that fit alongside it warmly.
Blitzen Trapper Setlist:
1. Black River Killer
2. Taking It Easy Too Long
3. Love The Way You Walk Away
4. Astronaut
5. Out on the Weekend
6. Harvest
7. A Man Needs A Maid
8. Heart Of Gold
9. Are You Ready For The Country
10. Old Man
11. There’s A World
12. Alabama
13. The Needle And The Damage Done
14. Words (Between the Lines of Age)
15. Big Black Bird
16. Thirsty Man
Encore:
17. Stranger In A Strange Land
18. Furr
19. Rock and Roll (New Song)
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