Greensky Bluegrass Get Bad to the Bone for Halloween (A Gallery + Recap)
Photo Credit: Greensky Bluegrass
Last night, Oct. 31, Greensky Bluegrass touched down in Charleston, S.C. for its highly-anticipated special Halloween performance. Upholding a reputation for making the most of the holiday, the band made up for passing on the tradition in 2023 by fully embracing the excitement at The Refinery; with matching costumes, immersive stage production and a thematically-centered setlist, the ever-evolving jamgrass ensemble reminded fans of their talent for special stagings.
Greensky Bluegrass showed their spirit when all five members sauntered out onto the stage in matching skeleton jumpsuits and skull face paint. The string ensemble underscored its appearance by launching the show with a tongue-in-cheek intro of Cris Jacobs’ 2016 hit “Bone Digger,” which has been a staple of Greensky’s live catalog since 2018 and appears on the band’s third Leap Year Sessions album. Webs of green, orange and purple light stretched out over the stage, promising some spooky surprises to come.
From a medley of “Wish I Didn’t Know” and “Reuben’s Train,” the band followed up with more classics from its own discography, dropping “Windshield,” “While Waiting” and “Give a Shit.” The ensemble recommitted to its theme towards the end of the first act as it tore into a rousing debut cover of country star Randy Travis’ 1986 signature “Diggin’ Up Bones,” then finished the first frame with “Living Over.”
Greensky returned to the stage with John Prine’s 1973 standout “Please Don’t Bury Me,” which launched a second set lined with song titles carefully suited to the holiday theme. After its iconic originals “Demons” and “I’d Probably Kill You,” the band moved to its one-in-a-blue-moon reworking of Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters” with a skeletal Paul Hoffman issuing the dance-pop vocals with the tone of a gravelly, grizzled gravedigger. Smoke poured out from the stage as the band set up “Kerosene,” then flashed back to the ‘80s again for Simple Minds’ “Don’t You (Forget About Me).”
The band’s 2022 Stress Dreams cut “Screams” continued to compliment the grand design, as did the ensuing classic combination of “Before Bring Out Your Dead” and “Bring Out Your Dead.” The quick-picking quintet finally shut down the main portion of its performance with “Monument,” then returned to the stage for an encore with a debut cover of Robbie Robertson’s “Broken Arrow,” dedicated to the memory of Phil Lesh. With a closer of “Solstice,” Greensky marched back to their graves and sent the audience off into the haunted autumn night.
Greensky Bluegrass will return to the stage tonight, Nov. 1, for a performance at The Underground in Charlotte, N.C. For more information on the band and its fall tour, visit greenskybluegrass.com/tour/
Watch fan-recorded videos of the live debuts below and get an inside look at the show through the photo gallery, courtesy of the band. Read on for the evening’s complete setlist.
Greensky Bluegrass
The Refinery – Charleston, S.C.
10/31/24
Set I: Bone Digger, Wish I Didn’t Know > Reuben’s Train, Windshield, While Waiting, Give a Shit, Diggin’ Up Bones+, Living Over
Set II: Please Don’t Bury Me, Demons, I’d Probably Kill You, Ghostbusters, Kerosene, Don’t You (Forget About Me), Screams, Before Bring Out Your Dead > Bring Out Your Dead, Monument
Encore: Broken Arrow+, Solstice
Notes:
+ Debut
