On Monday evening, Aqueous rang in 2019 in their hometown of Buffalo, NY with a sold-out performance at Town Ballroom with support from lespecial.

Following a VIP performance on 12/30 that saw the band play through their self-titled debut show in its entirety at Buffalo’s Nietzsche’s, the band took the stage at the much larger Town Ballroom with fan-favorite “Random Company”. After continuing with “Realize Your Light” from 2018’s Color Wheel, the band broke out their first live debut of the night—a hometown-appropriate cover of Thin Lizzy‘s “The Boys Are Back In Town”.

Another Color Wheel track, “Split the Difference”, was up next, followed seamlessly by “Skyway” and a special funky, mixed-and-mashed bustout of “Eon Don”, not played since last July (a 137-show gap). The band pushed “Eon Don” through some teases of Dr. Dre‘s “Xxplosive” before shifting into “Timmy’s Blades” and, finally, returning to “Eon Don” to wrap set one.

Set two began with an exploratory take on “Strange Times” featuring a jam surrounding the theme from Jurassic Park, followed by early Color Wheel single “Weight of the Word”. The remainder of the set saw the band play straight through without stopping, as they worked through “How High You Fly”, and “Origami” before diving into “Auld Lang Syne” as the clock struck midnight.

From there, the band had another crowd-pleasing cover debut in the works, as they broke out The Grateful Dead‘s “Truckin'” for the very first time before sliding into “Aldehyde” to cap set two. For their encore, the band returned to deliver the live debut of the final track on Color Wheel, “In It (For Me)” before closing out the New Year’s Eve performance with a sing-along cover of The Beatles‘ “Hey Jude” for the first time in 511 shows (dating back to February 2014).

You can watch a fan-shot video of “Strange Times” and check out a gallery of photos via Matt Shotwell below:

Aqueous – “Strange Times”

[Video: TheMMBArts]

Aqueous will get their 2019 touring schedule underway in February when they hit the road for a run of dates with BIG Something beginning on 2/7 in Bloomington, IN. For a full list of the band’s upcoming shows, head to their website.

Setlist: Aqueous | Town Ballroom | Buffalo, NY | 12/31/18

Set 1: Random Company, Realize Your Light, The Boys Are Back In Town¹, Split The Difference > Skyway > Eon Don² ³ > Timmy’s Blades > Eon Don

Set 2: Strange Times⁴, Weight of the Word, How High You Fly > Origami > Auld Lang Syne > Truckin’⁵ > Aldehyde

Encore:

In It (For Me)⁶ > Hey Jude⁷

Notes:

¹ Debut, Thin Lizzy cover

² BUSTOUT: LTP 7/2/17 (137 shows), funky version

³ Xxplosive (Dr. Dre) tease

⁴ Jurassic Park Theme (John Williams) tease

⁵ Debut, Grateful Dead cover

⁶ Live Debut

⁷ BUSTOUT: LTP 2/26/14 (511 shows)