February 21, 2020 at The Vogue, Indianapolis
My second time seeing Rod Tuffcurls wasn’t quite as raucous of an evening as their Halloween show, in part because of the way I chose to experience the evening (cozy spot on the balcony instead of down in the pit) and in part because of the energy of the crowd. Regardless, RT&BP brought their seemingly infinite energy to The Vogue and didn’t disappoint. They’re an amazing group to see and I’ll continue to see them when I can. The songs they play aren’t originals, but their energy and performances are.
Instead of coming out in costume, they came out in their usual short shorts and high socks. The 2 sets had a great mix of songs. They have such an incredible range that they can play any song that’s right to bring the house down. Out of the 37 songs they played, I didn’t know 7. That means I was belting (read: singing at a respectable volume relative to the sound in the venue) along for 30 songs. Safe to say I had a great time.
Rod Tuffcurls started off the second set with an absolutely jam filled rendition of Phish’s 46 Days. I may have been one of 10 or so people in the venue that knew the song but the energy of the jams spoke the universal concert language. Turns out the band members are huge fans of Phish too and normally open every second set of theirs with a different Phish song, which is pretty cool in my book.
The only thing I wasn’t a fan of about the concert this time around was the sound balance in the second set. After Drops of Jupiter the bass was oppressive in volume and feeling, an opinion was shared by a few of the people around me. It balanced out a little sometime around Mamma Mia and felt fully balanced by the time Cher rolled around. I think the oppressive bass was an isolated occurrence and shouldn’t be held against them – it happens. I maintain the thought that I expressed before:
If you get the chance to go to a Rod Tuffcurls & The Bench Press concert, don’t pass it up.
The setlists (brace yourself)
First set:
- Zak and Sara – Ben Folds
- Dancing Queen – Abba
- Anna Sun – WALK THE MOON
- You Make My Dreams – Hall & Oats
- Duck Tales Theme Song – Disney
- Dancing in the Moonlight – King Harvest
- Somebody to Love – Queen
- A-Punk – Vampire Weekend
- When My Time Comes – Dawes
- You’ll Be Back – Jonathan Groff, Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton
- Let It Go – Idina Menzel, Frozen
- Send me On My Way – Rusted Root
- I Wanna Dance With Somebody – Whitney Houston
- -Mini Drum Solo-
- Build Me Up Buttercup – The Foundations
- -Maxi Drum Solo- -> drum solo over Small Talk (I think) by Katy Perry
- Love Song – Sara Bareilles
- Rocket Man – Elton John -> Under Pressure – Queen, David Bowie
- Bohemian Rhapsody
Second set:
- 46 Days – Phish
- Drops of Jupiter – Train
- Bad Romance – Lady Gaga
- Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen
- The Office Theme Song (intro song)
- Dancing On My Own – Robyn
- I’ll Make A Man Out Of You – Donny Osmond, Mulan
- Mamma Mia – Abba
- Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond
- Electric Love – Børns
- Beautiful Day – U2
- A Thousand Miles – Vanessa Carlton
- Mr. Brightside – The Killers
- Believe – Cher
- Pokémon Theme – Jason Paige
- Africa – Toto
- Some parody song “Gotta get to the swamp … where it’s warm and sticky … “
- All Star – Smash Mouth
- Piano Man – Billy Joel
After the concert I was able to get a setlist from the sound engineer again. There were some jams but most of the sets were planned. Similar to before, they played a goofy ‘level up’ ballad. Go see them in concert – you won’t be dissappointed.
