Revival tour hits Seattle!!

A couple weeks back i found myself in Seattle for the Revival tour, featuring Tim Barry, Chuck Ragan, Ben Nichols, and for this stop on the tour, Austin Lucas and Kevin Seconds. This tour was modeled after old folk/bluegrass tours where performers not only sing songs solo but they also collaborate with each other. The tickets said show at 8pm and right on cue all 5 of the singer/songwriters walked onstage accompanied by a stand-up bass player, a pedal steel guitarist and a violinist. In total there was 8 people on stage! The set started with everyone playing "Shoulda, Oughta" by Tim Barry which was even more powerful with all the extra vocals and instruments. That song was followed up with a Chuck Ragan song and then a Lucero song (that would be Ben Nichols band). These first 3 songs were worth the price of admission and the hours spent on a stinky greyhound bus alone! As i stood front & center singing along with "Last Night In Town" by Lucero my mind was reeling at the idea that i was listening to Ben doing an acoustic version of this song with Chuck Ragan from Hot Water Music and Tim Barry of Avail providing secondary vocals!! This is the kind of shit that music nerds like me dream of!
After the amazing triple shot of rock that opened the set everyone left the stage for Austin Lucas to perform. During his solo time a few of the back-up musicians joined him as well as Chuck Ragan to perform some of the songs that he and Austin had released on the album "Bristle Ridge". After more than 25minutes Austin invited Kevin Seconds to play. Kevin has released a couple records solo but is better known for being the singer in influential hardcore/punk kings 7 Seconds. I'd rather see 7 Seconds but at the same time Kevin seems into playing solo and some of the songs sound like "New Wind" era.
This show ran real smooth, no breaks what so ever in between bands. After Kevin played Tim Barry took the stage and was so fuckin' good! I'm a huge Avail fan and this was my first time seeing Tim performing solo and i'm happy to report that Tim is just as charismatic, engaging, honest and heartfelt with just a guitar as he is when he's onstage with Avail. He was in a great mood, joking around thruout the site, but also wasn't afraid to show a more vulnerable and serious side while introducing a song that meant alot to him, talking about 2 friends who passed away in the last year.
Ben Nichols set wasn't far off from a Lucero set; in other words Ben had no idea what to play and all his fans yelled out what songs they wanted to hear. He was joined by the pedal steel guitar player as he played a few songs from his new solo ep "The Last Pale Light In The West" as well alot of songs from the Lucero catalog. It's great watching Ben intently listen to the song requests being yelled at him and then figure out if he can or wants to play the song.
Chuck Ragan's set was pretty intense and passionate, not far off from his days with Hot Water Music just minus the distortion. He played songs from all his releases, some with the back up musicians and tourmates, and 2 of the highlights were the Hot Water Music and Alkaline Trio songs that he busted out.
After Chuck's set everyone came back on stage to play a few more songs including a song that they wrote & recorded on this tour called "Revival Road". In total this show ran for just about 4 hours, with no breaks at all. Yeah my feet and back was beyond sore at the end of it all but i'd be the last to complain about this show. I was so impressed with this show/tour and the way it was run, hopefully it becomes a yearly event.