Neighbor Delivers Deep Jams, Debuts & The Neighbor Nine At Soundcheck Studios Homecoming

Judy Garland (as Dorthy Gale in The Wizard of Oz) perhaps said it best when this past weekend’s two Neighbor shows at Soundcheck Studios in Pembroke, Massachusetts come to mind: “There’s no place like home.”

Neighbor, having branched out to various parts of the country over the last several years, is at its roots a Boston band, cutting their teeth in Somerville’s Thunder Road for 37 shows in 2019 and 2020 (30 in 2019 alone as part of a Tuesday night residency throughout the year) before they finally had a chance to tour. While Thunder Road is sadly gone, one could easily argue that Soundcheck has taken that club’s place of being “home” with 32 performances of its own as of Saturday night.

Soundcheck served as a musical haven for many local acts when the COVID pandemic hit in 2020 and stopped the typical concert experience in its tracks. Neighbor continued to build upon its community with outdoor shows at Soundcheck that fall before doing a mini “residency” of “Planet Silver” webcasts from within the walls of a nearly empty room the following winter for multiple weeks. Soundcheck has permanent ties to the now closed Thunder Road with both bars from the 200-capacity room now situated in Pembroke. While Soundcheck is a little over double the size of Thunder Road, the intimacy remains with so many bigger venues out there and seeing so many familiar faces in the smaller audience.

Friday’s Neighbor performance was advertised ahead of time as being “The Neighbor Nine.” This expanded lineup featured (beyond the band’s core four musicians Ricky James, Dan Kelly, Rob Compa, and Dean “The Dux” Johnston) Matt Wayne on saxophone, Rob Krahn on trombone, James Cronin on trumpet, and backup vocalists Renee Dupuis and Joanne Cassidy.

The concept was first introduced on Halloween 2020 at Drive-In Live in Swanzey, Nnew Hampshire. In just over 350 Neighbor shows, The Neighbor Nine has been a rare delight for those in attendance with Friday being only its 7th appearance and the first since the full lineup appeared at Boarding House Park in Lowell, Massachusetts on August 16, 2024.

The first set on Friday kicked off in an atypical fashion with Dux walking out on stage solo and playing drums as one by one each member of the band and horn section slowly joined before the vocalists completed the Nine in a several minute opening jam. “Chickens” quickly followed and featured solos from both Robs (Rob Krahn with the first horn spotlight and Rob Compa on guitar for his first show with the Neighbor Nine). The Rob Compa emphasis immediately continued with his own composition “Hi Doggie” taking center stage and being the first of several songs making their Neighbor Nine debut that evening.

Renee’s vocals were then on display for “Crashing Down,” which also featured some beautiful interplay between Rob Compa and Dan. “Magna Zero” was the first dive into Neighbor’s Planet Silver rock opera and was followed by “Don’t You Cry.” Next, “The Longest Day” gave James a chance to shine with an extended trumpet solo as the band’s pace slowed down considerably before building back up to a normal tempo to finish the song.

The second ever performance of “Broadway” with the Neighbor Nine had a unique touch with a short horn intro before the rest of the band joined in. “State Street” followed with its first time gracing a Neighbor stage in 111 shows (last appearing at another intimate venue that’s proven to be near and dear to the band and fans alike at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock on January 20, 2024). A song with lyrics saturated with Boston references and having debuted in Boston at The Wilbur in 2023, this was only the third time the composition has appeared and the first to feature The Neighbor Nine. The 80-minute first set concluded with “Take Me Alive.”

“Magic Marble Crew,” another tune from Planet Silver, led off the second set with a brief drum solo by Dux before arguably the biggest surprise of the night: the debut of “Holy Ghost of New Orleans,” a tune that had been released a year ago featuring the combined talents of TAUK and Neighbor that had yet to be played live and fit perfectly into the evening’s setlist. “What Should Will Never Be” and “Isla” followed with the latter giving Joanne Cassidy a chance to serenade the crowd.

The Neighbor Nine dove back into Planet Silver for one final time with “The Comet” and “Silver III” before the band shifted gears in “Pine Tree” and got to flex their collective improvisational muscles with more dual playing between Rob Compa and Dan. Ricky introduced “Why I Like You” as kicking it back old school to the Thunder Road days (the song had appeared in over half of the shows at Thunder Road) and “Thunder Island” as the band keeping it old school with an explanation of the composition’s origin.

“Terror For Free” finished off another long set (84 minutes) and featured a Matt saxophone solo before melting down to just Dan on bass with a bit of a drum backdrop. Neighbor had one more surprise in store for Friday night with their first performance of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “You’re All I Need to Get By” in the encore, which was played in the style of Aretha Franklin’s cover. Renee sang lead vocals on this beautiful rendition to cap off a memorable evening.

Friday Livestream Replay

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The second night of Neighbor’s weekend run at Soundcheck Studios featured just the band with no special guests and a chance to showcase themselves in a more natural state. A brief bit of opening improvisation led into a pair of songs off of the band’s 2023 debut self-titled album (a second record was recently recorded but a release date has yet to be announced) in “The Weeds” and “Lonely Rider.” In a sharp contrast of musical styles, “The Weeds” was a slow and patient setlist start with “Lonely Rider” at its usual fast pace.

“Live Free or Boogie” segued out of “Lonely Rider” and included a brief “Entrance of the Gladiators” (Julius Fučík) tease from Rob with “Cucamonga Carl” performed next. Rob’s “Garbage Man” composition appeared for the second time in a Neighbor show (having first been played at the Pickle Barrel in Killington, Vermont this past March) and was paused with a perfect transition into “On My Mind” where the full band all immediately switched songs at the same time. “Garbage Man” was then smoothly woven back out of “On My Mind.” “The Unknown” followed before flowing into Dan’s instrumental “One For The Hoop” which featured Dux and Rob solos. “Mary and Martha” served as a heartfelt set closer and another track off of the band’s studio release.

Saturday First Set Livestream Replay

Whereas much of the first set consisted of straightforward playing of Neighbor’s impressive song catalog, the band’s final set of the run felt more loose with some humor and wildness intertwined throughout its tunes. There was a bit of ambience leading into the set opener “Stranger Part of Town” with Ricky adding effects from his talk box. A patient and somewhat diminished jam developed in the middle of the song before a gradual building of tension leading to a full release back into the song’s melody with several enthusiastic “Yeahs!” from Ricky. There was a different energy on the stage and Neighbor was just getting started. “All The Same,” a rare selection from the Neighbor song repertoire by Ricky and Mark Munzer, next appeared and, having not been played since the fall of 2024, was performed with Rob for the first time.

The next 20 minutes of the evening were devoted to a “Trippin’ in a Van,” which saw Neighbor flexing their creative muscles. Rob threw some “Happy Birthday” teases into the song’s intro (this show was two days before Ricky’s birthday and a large “Happy Birthday” balloon was behind him on a stairway leading up to Soundcheck’s second floor) with Ricky quickly circling back to add lyrics from “All The Same” into the mix. Ricky started repeating “my mind” while weaving back more “All The Same” quotes and laughing into the microphone before a verse of “Trippin’s” own lyrics surfaced.

“Trippin’” has a tendency to veer off course and Saturday’s version was a perfect example. Ricky talked about different days of the week and wanting to talk to his cat Fuzz after the opening verse with the band playing along. The cat banter led to Rob joining in on the fun with meowing noises emanating from his guitar. Ricky asked if anybody had seen Fuzz and left his keyboards mid-song and grabbed an extra pair of drumsticks to play on one of Dux’s cymbals. Dan and Rob soon followed suit leading to a unique sight (and sound) of the entire band on Dux’s drum set.

During the mini “drums” moment in “Trippin,’” Ricky called out into one of Dux’s microphones trying to find Fuzz before retreating back to his keys. Dux was eventually left by himself although Dan kept a drumstick and briefly used it on his bass (accompanied by more meows from Rob’s guitar). “Chocolate cream pies” became part of the song’s banter collection before “Trippin’” returned to a short period of “normalcy” with a second verse’s appearance. “Trippin’” technically came to a brief end with Dan remarking “well, that happened” before Ricky started to sing and play the song on his own with the rest of the band rejoining. Upon finishing this verse, Ricky said “thank you” and told the band “the song’s over” as they continued playing, leading to more banter and Ricky saying “I’m not joining you. The song’s over.”

“Trippin’s” music would finally stop with Ricky asking Rob how he was, what he did that day, and what he had for breakfast before adding in that the song wasn’t over. A debate over whether the song was over emanated amongst the band with a discussion over musical keys before “Trippin’” returned yet again. Ricky asked for all of the lights to be turned off and said “I want to just hear Dan Kelly take a bass solo in the dark,” to which Dan gladly obliged (with some underlying drumming from Dux). Ricky then asked for a spotlight on Dan, then Dux, and then the crowd to “cheer their asses off” to which the crowd gladly obliged. Everything turned black again per Ricky’s request as the full band resumed playing and Ricky threw teases of Phish’s “Tweezer” into the musical stew that had developed. An excellent jam soon flourished and was an improvisational highlight of the weekend and a must-hear moment. Post jam, there was a brief stop before “Trippin’” returned for the final time.

“Mighty Apple Tree” showed up next and delightfully segued into the Neighbor debut of My Morning Jacket’s “Wordless Chorus.” Neighbor’s rendition featured Ricky on vocals and was played in a lower key than what you’d hear from My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James and his band, instead staying in the key of “Mighty Apple Tree” before returning to “Mighty Apple Tree” itself with Ricky adding some additional “Wordless Chorus” vocals. “Motor” provided a quick respite from the set’s jamming before “Steel” ended the music. “Steel” had some funk added in before breaking down to just Ricky and Dan with Ricky saying “the song isn’t over.” Dux and Rob rejoined to then end the tune.

Unlike the first night of the run, up until the encore, there hadn’t been any nods to Neighbor’s past. When the band came back on stage to play, Ricky said “I’ll tell you what, it’s just like we left it. This place still rules. Honestly, up here we feel so comfortable, doing what we do. We love to have fun. One of the things at the very beginning of this band, when we started Neighbor, was just let’s have fun, doing what we do, and when it stops being fun, we should just not do it anymore. So the first thing is let’s have fun. And I know that if we have fun, hopefully you guys will have fun. So we’re gonna keep trying our best to have fun.”

Ricky then talked about the band’s appreciation for Soundcheck with it being a catalyst for writing and performing. “Planet Silver” would close the show and was introduced as “In the Night” which was what a fan in the crowd had asked for (meaning to ask for Led Zeppelin’s “In the Light”). “Planet Silver” contained its often-performed piano arpeggio intro.

The two Soundcheck shows served as the start of Neighbor’s summer tour with their next performance coming on May 22 at StrangeCreek Campout in Greenfield, Massachusetts.

Saturday Second Set + Encore Livestream Replay

Setlists (via Neighbortunes.com)

Friday, May 8

Set One: Jam[1] > Chickens[2] > Hi Doggie[2], Crashing Down[2], Magna Zero[2], Don’t You Cry[2], The Longest Day[2], Broadway[2], State Street[2], Take Me Alive[2]

Set Two: Magic Marble Crew[2] > Dux > Holy Ghost of New Orleans[3], What Should Will Never Be[2] > Isla[2], The Comet[2] > Silver III[2], Pine Tree[2] > Why I Like You[2], Thunder Island[2], Terror For Free[2]

Encore: You’re All I Need to Get By[4]

Footnotes:

• [1] Band, horns, and singers came out one by one.
• [2] The Neighbor Nine.
• [3] Debut (Tauk and Neighbor); The Neighbor Nine.
• [4] First time played (Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell; performed as the Aretha Franklin version); The Neighbor Nine.

Show Notes: The Neighbor Nine included Renee Dupuis and Joanne Cassidy on backup vocals, Matt Wayne on saxophone, Rob Krahn on trombone, and James Cronin on trumpet. Lyrics to Chickens changed to “Soundcheck Studio is in dismay.”

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Saturday, May 9

Set One: Jam > The Weeds, Lonely Rider > Live Free or Boogie[1], Cucamonga Carl, Garbage Man > On My Mind -> Garbage Man, The Unknown > One For The Hoop, Mary and Martha

Set Two: Stranger Part of Town, All The Same, Trippin’ in a Van[2], Mighty Apple Tree -> Wordless Chorus[3] -> Mighty Apple Tree[4], Motor > Steel

Encore: Planet Silver[5]

Footnotes:

• [1] Entrance of the Gladiators (Julius Fučík) tease.
• [2] Happy Birthday and Tweezer (Phish) teases and All The Same quote. Band joined Dux on drums and Dan briefly played his bass with a drumstick. Multiple endings.
• [3] First time played (My Morning Jacket).
• [4] Wordless Chorus (My Morning Jacket) vocals.
• [5] Included Arpeggio intro.