Watch Greensky Bluegrass & Holly Bowling Celebrate New Year’s Eve With Hometown Concert In Kalamazoo

Greensky Bluegrass rang in 2024 with a three-set New Year’s Eve concert in their hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan featuring keyboardist Holly Bowling. The final show of a three-city, four-night New Year’s Run through Michigan saw #6reensky deliver a career-spanning setlist focusing on originals that also included a handful of choice covers.

Mandolinist Paul Hoffman welcomed fans at the State Theatre to the show at the top of the evening and explained how happy the group was to open the New Year in the city where the band was formed. GSBG then lit into “Letter To Seymour” helmed by guitarist Dave Bruzza. The final notes of “Letter To Seymour” gave way to the emotional “In Control” before the six musicians took Josh Davis’ “Last Winter In The Copper County” deep for 15 minutes.

An extended version of the title track off 2019’s All For Money was then followed by a coupling of “Just To Lie” and “Room Without A Roof.” Oldie “Just To Lie” came next and was connected to the ensuing “Room Without A Roof” with a pretty interlude from Bowling. Greensky ended the evening’s first set with a well-jammed “Run Or Die.”

Fan-favorite “Past My Prime” kicked off the second set on New Year’s Eve. Greensky’s latest studio album, 2022’s Stress Dreams, was then represented by “Stress Dreams” and “Absence Of Reason” with “Lose My Way” falling in between the recent cuts. Next up was a cover of The Allman Brothers Band-popularized “One Way Out” before the six musicians served up “Distracted,” a song they wrote and recorded together earlier this year in Iceland. The subsequent “I’d Probably Kill You” was followed by a seamless set-ending run connecting Stress Dreams‘ standout “Reasons To Stay” and “Time” > “Breathe Reprise” from Pink Floyd’s iconic Dark Side Of The Moon LP.

GSBG chose beloved original “The Four” to launch the final set of the run. The band and their guest then played into the energy as the clock approached midnight with a “Who Is Fredrico?” Hoffman revealed he wrote the song about a bartender upstairs at the venue. Staple “Courage For The Road” came next and was left unfinished as dobroist Anders Beck counted down the last 10 seconds of 2023 and 2024 began with the traditional “Auld Lang Syne.”

Balloons fell while #6reensky worked through “Auld Lang Syne” and an adventurous “Kerosene.” It was then back to Stress Dreams for a “Worry For You” that led into the band’s first cover of the Grateful Dead classic “Jack Straw” since their Halloween 2022 celebration on October 29, 2022 — a span of 105 shows. After closing the third set with “Living Over,” #6reensky returned for an encore featuring “Wings For Wheels” and “Burn Them.” The latter featured a “Courage For The Road” reprise within.

Watch more fan-shot video from #6reensky’s NYE celebration below:

Official Audio (via nugs.net)

Audience Recording (Taped by Sam Lincoln)

Setlist (via Phantasy Tour)

Set One: A Letter to Seymour > In Control, Last Winter in the Copper Country, All for Money, Just to Lie > Room Without a Roof, Run or Die

Set Two: Past My Prime, Stress Dreams, Lose My Way, Absence of Reason, One Way Out, Distracted, I’d Probably Kill You, Reasons to Stay > Time > Breathe Reprise

Set Three: The Four > Who Is Frederico?, Courage for the Road > Auld Lang Syne > Kerosene, Worry for You, Jack Straw, Living Over

Encore: Wings for Wheels, Burn Them > Courage for the Road > Burn Them

Notes: Full show w/ Holly Bowling (keys) #6reensky