I saw Lotus on a Friday night in downtown Baltimore, and it was great! This was my first time seeing them with guitarist Tim Palmieri (Kung Fu), and he blew me away! Read all about it below.
Baltimore Soundstage
Soundstage has been around since about 2010, and is down the street from Power Plant Live. I’ve always enjoyed everything about this club. The sound is great, with clear bass, there are two bars and the wait has never been very long for me. It’s easy to get around, and if you’re a smooker, you can go on the little side patio they have on Cross Street. Drinks are expensive, but they’re expensive everywhere, so that’s no surprise. Overall, I’m always excited to attend this venue! If you have a chance to see a show here, I highly recommend it!
Set One
- Lucid Awakening
- MacGuffin
- Caywood
- Flower Sermon >
- Golden Ghost >
- Flower Sermon
- Land of the Lush
By my reckoning, I hadn’t seen Lotus since 2011 before this show. That was back at the Starscape Festival, over at Ft. Armistead Park. While they’ve written a lot of new music since then, their sound is still very familiar, and I was immediately in the Lotus Zone. I’ve always loved the way that they structure their jams, the Flower Sermon sandwich being a great example in this set. They can go pretty far afield, even to another song, but they are masters of building up the tension before returning to the head of the song. I was also really happy to hear Flower Sermon, as it’s always been a banger and one of my favorites! This was a hell of an opening statement by the band, especially on Night One of the run.
Set Two
- Bjorn Gets A Haircut
- One-Eyed Jones (debut)
- Debris
- It’s All Clear To Me Now >
- Travel >
- Spiritualize >
- Shimmer & Out (encore)
I thought they left it all on the floor with the first set, but I was wrong. Palmieri has a marked difference on how the solos sound, giving everything a bluesier feel than I’m used to hearing from this band. I will miss Rempel, he was definitely key to many of my great memories of the band, but I can appreciate a new direction! Tim’s got chops, and has played with all the big names in the industry (all the members of Phish, the Biscuits, Umphrey’s, you name it). I’m a debut hunter, so I was super happy to hear not only a new song, but a bunch of tunes I’m less familiar with. Having said that, they closed out this set with a classic Lotus combination, everything from It’s All Clear To Me Now on was pure bliss.
Final Thoughts
I was actually planning to go to both nights of this show, but we had to leave early after the third or fourth song on Saturday, so no review will be coming for that one. The first few songs sounded bangin’!
I will definitely see them as much as possible when they come anywhere within 50 miles of me. I’m hoping to go to the Sacred Rose Festival later this year in Illinois, as well as a host of other great acts (Phil Lesh and some amazing Friends!) If you’re an old-school Lotus fan, or you’ve never heard them but love the Jamtronica sub-genre, this ticket will be worth every penny. They haven’t lost a bit of their fire, or beautiful improvising.
You can buy Lotus merch here.
You can buy Tim Palmieri merch here.
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