All Roads Lead Here: Perpetual Groove St. Patrick’s Weekend-Georgia 2 Night Run

By Mitchell Shapiro

Perpetual Groove took a lap through their adopted home state of Georgia over St. Patrick’s Day weekend, Friday March 14^th and Saturday March 15^th with two shows. Friday night saw the prodigal sons return to Savannah, the city that spawned their origin story over 25 years ago, for a show at Victory North. While Saturday night saw PGroove return to the Variety Playhouse (the site of one of my favorite PGroove shows, 10/31/2005) in Atlanta.

Savannah is known for hosting one of the biggest St. Patty’s Day Parades and weekend parties and this year was no different. However, less than a few miles away from the revelers in the Downtown Historic District a different kind of party was going on and nothing can beat spending this holiday weekend seeing PGroove and my second favorite ginger musician (Who is the first you may ask. Number one is, of course, my daughter. First chair flute in arguably the top middle school Wind Ensemble in North Carolina).

PGroove kicked things off with “Spirit Bear”, a track from their self-titled album released in 2019. From there the band went straight into “Robot Waltz”, one of their classic instrumental pieces. As they wound their way through “Robot Waltz” they took a quick detour for McDonald to debut the theme from the Apple TV hit, Severance. The haunting piano theme then dropped back into “Robot Waltz”.

Next up was “Cairo”, I always enjoy the interplay between McDonald and Butler on this tune and this evening’s version was solid. Things took a turn to a dark place next with “Mayday”. “Metal PGroove” complete with flightdeck/control tower audio of aircraft disasters and Butler playing his, new to the stable, matte black Jackson Limited Edition Pro Plus XT Monarkh Baritone Guitar (For the Gearheads: Friday evening was the maiden voyage of Butler’s Helix Multi-effects Floor Processor). “Mayday” saw the band really fall  into a heavy freight train groove with thundering bass from Perry and pounding drums from Stanley. After they crunched their way through “Mayday” next up was the new single, “Slip & Stitch”. One of my favorite characteristics of PGroove is the poignant lyrics and “Slip & Stitch” lands squarely in that category. “Slip & Stitch” led into “Black Sheep”, another track from their 2019 album.

Next up was a cover that PGroove has made their own after more than two decades of playing it. The KC and the Sunshine Band classic, “Get Down Tonight”. Naturally, a dance party ensued and as they weaved their way through this tune that has taken on PGroove’s signature SouthernTranceIndieRock sound. “Two Shores” was up next in this single set affair. Set closer and fan favorite, “TTFPJ” led into a little heavy petting with the B-52s-esque, “Erotic Touch” a return to “TTFPJ” and then into an extended tease of LCD Soundsystem’s “Us V Them” and finally weaving back into “TTFPJ” to close out the set.

The band returned to the stage for an encore. Butler thanked the crowd and closed the evening with one of their classics, “Three Weeks”. Of course, no “Three Weeks” is complete without a visit from Butler’s alter-ego, The Reverend Choppin Brockly. Tonight the Rev’s sermon thanked the crowd and reminisced with a story about his days working at the “fancy” Parker’s Market and it’s usefulness as a marketing tool for the band and  meeting Perry at Savannah College of Art and Design. The Reverend left us with “All Roads lead here. Where we’re going, we don’t need any roads” (I’ve took the liberty of cleaning up the Doc Brown, Back to the Future quote, Butler may have added a mf’en in there too). The crowd filed out into the pleasant Savannah evening and the band packed up to head to Atlanta for night two at the Variety Playhouse.

Saturday night in Atlanta had a severe weather watch but looked clear until after midnight. POTCH, a local Alanta band opened. PGroove then hit the stage and opened their set with “A.Retro” continuing the previous night’s theme of openers from the 2019 Perpetual Groove album. Played straight into a cover that has been a setlist stalwart for decades, Peter Gabriel’s “Digging in the Dirt”.

PGroove worked their way through a handful of originals, “Paper Dolls”, “Suburban Speedball” an ode to the wonders of mixing pharmaceuticals, easy journey to other planets with “Space Paranoids”, then the second biggest surprise of the night, a repeat from the previous night. “Slip & Stitch” made a welcomed second appearance. Next, Butler grabbed his baritone guitar, playing it for the remainder of the set, and it was about to get deep, dark and savage. “Stealy Man” chugged along in a heavy groove as they took the song for a ride.

The biggest surprise of the night was about to unfold. On to the stage stepped John Hruby, who served as keyboardist from 2008-2012 while McDonald left the band (to focus on family and other multi-media projects). Hruby stepped behind the keyboard to play with his old bandmates on Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” and the band continued with the dark and heavy themes. Hruby left the stage and the ominous “Teakwood Betz” began, another of PGroove’s signature instrumentals. This version did not disappoint and was played directly into another cover to close the set, TV On The Radio’s “DLZ”.  For the encore McDonald grabbed his guitar, which usually means one thing, it’s time to Rage Against the Machine. The quartet preceded to rip through their version of “Bulls On Parade” to close a show that included a big dose of the band’s mainstay covers. On cue, the wind picked up in Little Five Points as the venue emptied with lightning strikes in the distance.

Perpetual Groove next heads out to Denver, Colorado for back-to-back shows at the Meow Wolf|Convergence Station on Friday April 11 and Saturday April 12 and then to Lulu’s Downtown in Colorado Springs on Sunday April 13. Followed by a run through the beautiful South in May and June.

Set Lists

Friday March 14, 2025

Victory North

Savannah, GA

Spirit Bear>

Robot Waltz>

Severance Theme>

Robot Waltz>

Cairo

Mayday

Slip & Stitch

Black Sheep

Get Down Tonight

Two Shores

TTFPJ*

Enc: Walking in Place

*included Erotic Touch and Us V Them (LCD Soundsystem)

Saturday March 15, 2025

Variety Playhouse

Atlanta, GA

A Retro

Digging in the Dirt

Paper Dolls

Suburban Speedball>

Space Paranoids

Slip & Stitch

Stealy Man

God’s Gonna Cut You Down*

Teakwood Betz>

DLZ

Enc: Bulls on Parade

*with John Hruby