Red Rocks: Encore
Greta Van Fleet had already delivered a kick-ass show. But to make it even more phenomenal and iconic, we are left with a twenty-six-minute encore. Not every band even does an encore, much less a twenty-six minute one. But the band was not finished rockin’ yet.
“We’re gonna do a little send-off, if you would. Hopefully it’s extensive.”, Josh says. And he was absolutely right. It is extensive.
The intro to “Brave New World” was played just for a moment by Jake and it got me excited, thinking I would get to see the band perform that song as well, but it was just a tease. Rather, “Lover Leaver (Taker Believer) was performed. This song has been played on my local alternative rock station… Late at night. The flashing of pink lights and the energy coming from the band definitely indicates that they were not finished. “Oh my holy lord, sets my soul on fire. Flames of love and sweet perfume, she’s my heart’s desire.” Something about this song I loved to see was the bass solo from Sammy. It’s not something we get to see very often. In fact, before I saw this performance, I don’t remember ever seeing Sammy perform a solo. Jake’s of course just absolutely destroying his guitar , while Josh is revisiting Flower Power lyrics, “Sparrow of the dawn, our love is born, our love is born.”
Lover Leaver, Taker Believe is put on pause straight in the middle of the performance, where the band switches gears and goes into Highway Tune, the band’s first number one single. The crowd is going crazy as the band is playing one of fans’ most beloved tracks. The band pauses, the crowd cheers and goes straight back into the tune. When Highway Tune ends, Danny keeps the beat going and the band goes right back into Lover Leaver.
Jake at one point goes to grab Josh’s mic stand, places it center stage in front of him, and uses it as a slide, something a lot of people may not have seen before. “They seem like they’ve been around for twenty years”, one fan commented on the video. Jake flashes a smile when he finishes, showing he’s proud of himself for what he had just accomplished in front of THOUSANDS of people. Jake then performs a certain part… You know what part I’m talking about… Jake climbing the scale of his guitar, matching Josh’s vocals. There’s a certain note he hits that just makes my ears feel something they never had before seeing this band perform.
We reach the actual ending of the entire performance, the band finishing off so strong, you can feel their emotions as the band seems so proud and content with themselves in their second night of performing at Red Rocks. With their parents there. At such an iconic venue. All together. As they have been for years.
During the ending credits, there’s a track playing… It’s difficult to tell what it is. It’s difficult to tell what it sounds like. But the fact that there is sound at the very end of the entire performance’s credits. To me personally, it sounds like an introduction to something. Possibly, an introduction to an album. An invitation to something that is beginning. Whatever it is, it’s extremely possible that we may hear it again in the future.
All in all, the entire performance was something I thought I would see. Not being able to go to either of the shows was somewhat depressing, but I was happy to know people that got to go and have the experience. I always got to hear stories and see videos of the performances. Although it was confirmed by a source last year that there would be a Red Rocks DVD release, and the cameras WERE actually filming something. Seeing everything put together, from the songs and sound quality, to the graphics, to seeing the crowd, to the backstage footage, to the face-melting solos, high notes from the vocalist. Absolutely everything about this entire release is perfect. And I’m very excited to see what else Greta Van Fleet has to offer.
Bonus Content:
I have been doing my research with fans and have found that Greta Van Fleet has been sending out rocks and pictures to lucky fans. Along with pictures, the band has been sending puzzle pieces. Each fan has gotten a part of an alphabetical letter, or part of a number/date. The theory is that all together, the puzzle displays as “My Way Soon 10/09/20”, which is theorized to be the new single name and release date.
Now if that isn’t clever enough, there seems to be a certain Instagram account called, “david.stone_gvf”. The account features statues of David. Ya know. THEE David. In one photo, the statue has sunglasses on and it’s fairly clear that in the reflection, Sammy OR Jake is to be seen taking the photo. Needless to say, this account is run by at least one, or all of the members of the band. Just to have fun with fans. The first photo caption: “It was nice here, they treated me well. The days felt long, but life cut from stone is a hard road to own.” The second caption: “Not feeling like myself right now, I used to be whole.” The third: “I suppose we all have to wait until that one perfect moment.” The fourth: “What came first?” The biggest speculation from fans is that some of the captions COULD possibly be lyrics from a song. But also, it could just be meaningless captions and the band is just having fun tricking fans into thinking there’s some sort of secret message. Who knows? To quote the band, only time will tell….
This concludes all of the reviews for Greta Van Fleet: Red Rocks. This was my first time ever doing a performance review and although it has been overwhelming and exhausting at some points, I’m very glad I did it and was able to fully review it. Huge thank you to everyone who has read this and stuck by me, and a huge thank you to Greta Van Fleet and their team for FINALLY giving me something to talk about! Hopefully I’ll be able to review a new single track on Friday. Stay tuned!
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