The Charmer Tour: Toadies, Local H, Sparta

Phantom Light Media
Jun 11
3 min read

What a Sunday night at the Knitting Factory in Boise, ID. It had a little bit of everything for me. Some stress, some singing, and visiting with friends. The weather was nice outside, the venue was warm inside as is the case usually at any indoor show in the summer. Boise came out for Sparta, Local H, and the Toadies. Tonight is a rare moment that I got a plus one for the show, so I brought my friend Rocco, who is a huge Toadies fan.

Who was kicking off the night? Well this is Sparta from El Paso, TX. They had just joined this leg of the tour taking the spot of the Vandoliers who were on the first part of the tour. I wasn't present for too much of their set. I had some things that needed to be taken care of. They did a great job of helping set the energy for the rest of the night, from what I was able to catch.

We had Local H take the stage next. I had the pleasure of photographing them for the first time when they came through with Everclear last year. Then just like tonight this duo brought a ton of energy. From the crowd response there was a large collective of fans there to see them. Scott Lucas stands out when he takes the stage. It always seems like his mic is set too tall, it's been that way both times I have seen them. At the end of their set they had Doni Blair for them Toadies join them for Manifest Destiny parts 1 and 2. We would see this in the Toadies set as well. I also appreciated that Lucas made his way up to the merch to mingle with the fans. I don't always see that at this level. When I do I think it is great. If you missed them this time they will be back in October.

The Toadies finished the night. The headliner of The Charmer Tour came out on the stage to “Gonna Fly Now” from the movie Rocky and lit by the orange glow of their gas lamps( Lit with LEDs). The crowd roared and cheered happy to have them there. They had a pretty straight forward set with. There really wasn’t much of note until we got closer to the end of the set. When “Possum Kingdom” was playing up came the cell phones to get the video, upside this was really the only time I saw a sea of phones. When the encore began I was blown away by their cover of “I Put A Spell On You”. Lead singer, put his guitar down to grab the mic and get close to the fans with Scott Lucas coming out to play rhythm guitar for the song. For the last song “I Burn”,Neil Hennessy drummer for Sparta and Ronnie Dicola drummer for Local H joined Mark Reznicek on his kit to perform on the coolest things I have seen done with drums. The way they synced up was made just as impressive visually as it was audibly.

That was awesome to watch with one of my friends who is a drummer for a band locally here. To see his appreciation for this part of the set was great. It made for a great way to close the night out. Leaving on a high note like that was awesome. I was drained though and it was time to go home with the music still ringing in my ears.