Pacific NW! On May 14, 15 and 16 the motherf___ing Afghan Whigs are in your general vicinity.
Dates here – looks like the first Seattle show is sold out but Portland tickets are still available as is the last night of the whole tour on the 2nd night in Seattle – do not miss this show!!! Probable it’ll be a while before they hit the road again. And they are on fire this tour – trust me, I saw them in Asheville, NC last weekend. Here are the remaining dates –
https://theafghanwhigs.com/tour/
You’re very likely to experience this beauty with Mr Dulli on the keys
which seems to be a constant so far. The older stuff has been sparse – we were lucky enough to see them do ‘Debonair’ from ‘Gentlemen’ which is in my top 3 Whigs songs! So, so good…
In fact if I could have chosen one song to see them do, this would have been it. A lot of cities didn’t get it so, yeah, thank you Whigs Gods. Amazing. If I’d gotten ’66’ it would have been perfect.
In Austin yesterday they played ‘Turn on the Water’ from the ‘Congregation’ album which is a real rarity, jealous of those cats in Texas! I’ve got a feeling they’ll bust out a really, really exceptional setlist for the last show in Seattle. We tried to make it there but the cost > time ratio just didn’t add up.
They’re playing a bulk of material from ‘In Spades’ and ‘Do The Beast’ – two incredible albums – and they seem to have a better on-stage chemistry than ever. Alongside the original touchstones of Greg Dulli and John Curley the band consists of the amazing Rick Nelson who can play any instrument beautifully, drummer extroadinaire Patrick Keeler who was in The Raconteurs previously, and Jon Skibic who is a guitar Gandalf! It’s an electrifying line-up! Dave Rosser is missed immensely, of course (RIP Dave) but it’s a tight, connected, reactionary band.
I’ve seen a lot of different bands in my time so far and the Afghan Whigs are easy top 5. Enough rock to melt your face off. Almost a week since I saw them and I’m still buzzing. We got to watch them soundcheck and they did a couple of tracks from the ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ soundtrack which I love.
Do not miss them if you can possibly help it, it’s one of *those* gigs you’ll never forget. As one their shirts says – Whigs AF.
And they end most nights with this – COME ON!
