Yonder Mountain String Band at The Coach House, 3-29-18 Concert Review

Yonder Mountain String Band performing "Saint In The City"

The Coach House, in San Juan Capistrano, is kind of an odd venue for Yonder Mountain String Band. The audience is seated at long tables (twelve patrons to a table), and served dinner. There is no specific dance area, but there is some space in the back (which is where I went for most of the show, occasionally moving forward to take a few photos), and some space to the side. I was told that the venue seats five hundred people. Most of the folks that were seated at my table were locals, and had not seen Yonder Mountain String Band before. When the band took the stage at approximately 9:25 p.m., Ben acknowledged that probably several people in the audience were new to the band and its music, in a brief bit of stage banter before opening with a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City.” They followed that with another cover, King Harvest’s “Dancing In The Moonlight,” perhaps to ease the audience in with some familiar material.

It was opening day for the Red Sox, and after “Dancing In The Moonight,” Ben alluded to the fact that the Sox did not get off to a great start (they blew a fairly decent lead). And in introducing “Jolene,” Ben said, “Guess which member of the band is thirty-five weeks pregnant.” Allie then mentioned that the concert was her “baby’s seventy-first show in utero.” Although the majority of the audience remained seated for most of the show (until the encore), the band still did a fantastic set, which included “Another Day,” which might be my favorite of the band’s songs (certainly in my top three). There was plenty of jamming throughout the night, and even a mandolin solo. John Brighton, the fiddler from Old Salt Union, joined the band for the last couple of tunes of the set, and so there was double fiddle action, which was wonderful. The set ended at 11:15 p.m., and the band came back for a brief, one-song encore, “Rambler’s Anthem,” a fun way to conclude the night.

Set List

1. It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City
2. Dancing In The Moonlight
3. Jail Song
4. Jolene
5. Insult And An Elbow > 
6. Fingerprint
7. Another Day
8. Pass This Way >
9. E.M.D. >
10. Pass This Way
11. All The Time >
12. New Dusty Miller >
13. All The Time 

Encore:

1. Rambler’s Anthem

Here are some photos from the set:

"Dancing In The Moonlight"

"Jolene"

 

"Fingerprint"

 

"Fingerprint"

 

"Pass This Way"

"Pass This Way"

"E.M.D."

 

"E.M.D."

"All The Time"

"All The Time"

"All The Time"

"Rambler's Anthem"

The Coach House is located at 33157 Camino Capistrano, in San Juan Capistrano, California (by the way, the venue is a bit difficult to find, as you can’t see it from the street). The tour continues tonight at the Belly Up in Solana Beach, California.