On Friday, January 24th, Billy Strings and the band kicked off a three-night run at Denver’s Ball Arena. As was the case with the rest of the run, it was a show that reminded all in attendance of the sheer beauty that exists in this life and of the hope that still exists in this uncertain world. Billy and his band are the type of musicians this world needs right now, lights shining in brilliant rebellion against the imminent clouds. No matter how dark and cold the world may feel at times, Billy Strings is around to keep us warm.
It was an absolute barn burner, a pick-a-thon for the ages, as each furiously passing note threatened to turn the souls of every person in that vast crowd into kindling for a great bonfire that God himself would be unable to ignore. The show — and the weekend — was catharsis, sweet abandon, the hope and the joy and the warmth so needed these days all rolled up and burned down to the filter. It’s a hell of a time to be alive but it helps to be reminded that so many of us can fill a space as big as Ball Arena and be united by Billy Strings picking his way into the stuff of legend.
READ: Review — Greensky Bluegrass Picks Their Way Into 2025
Ball Arena was the perfect-sized venue for the crowd Billy now attracts. The size, the layout and the almost surprisingly cool staff helped eschew the chaos that has been seen at other Colorado venues Billy and the band have played in recent years. The lines to get in were long but moved quickly and calmly, most people just joking around in the cold January air and sharing in the anticipation with those around them. Merch lines were insane but that’s to be expected and the beer flowed freely. There were some complaints from attendees about security being overly strict about people dancing in the aisles between seating sections — which, with a crowd that size, is an inevitability — but this seemed to relax as the weekend rolled on. All in all, Ball Arena seemed to be a perfect fit.
Once people found their seats and got their beers and took care of whatever else they needed to do, the air in that great arena became heavy with excitement. Announcements counting down the show’s start rolled out over the speakers, “15 minutes fuzzy rainbows,” and so on. The countdown soon came to an end, Billy and the band hit the stage and the crowd erupted.
The band wasted no time and immediately launched into a massive “Wargasm.” The song is intended as a jam vehicle and man, did it take off. From the first note, every member was firing off, trading licks at breakneck speeds. It was a true showcase for the band. In addition to Billy, the band is Royal Massat on bass, Billy Failing on banjo, Jarod Walker on mandolin, and Alex Hargreaves on the fiddle. Each member is worthy of greatness and deserves to be in the conversation as some of the best of all time. They followed “Wargasm” with a chiller but equally as virtuosic cover of “The Lonesome Tree” by The Stanley Brothers and The Clinch Mountain Boys.
As the song came to an end, Billy then took the time to check in with the crowd, ask them how they were doing and the like. It seemed as if the magnitude of the arena was really hitting him at that point as he recalled his first show in Colorado at Twisted Pine Brewing in Boulder. He said there’s “been a helluva lot of good ones since then,” seemingly reflecting on just how far he’s come. All artists have an understanding of their own growth and evolution, the legacy they are building, and it seems like Billy truly relishes each step of the journey he’s been on and doesn’t take anything for granted.
Next came a fan-favorite cover of Jerry Reed’s “The Likes of Me,” which saw everyone picking like their lives depended on it. The true standout was Walker, who ripped that mando apart like he was stranded out in the wilderness and needed to use it as kindling. This led right into “Pyramid Country” before ending up at “Know It All.” The run of songs saw the first deep jam of the weekend, offering the crowd a glimpse of the strange and beautiful places they’d be taken over those three days.
They then slowed it down a bit with “Show Me the Door.” The song has such a melancholy to it, a longing. It felt like a much-needed punctuation after the face-melting that had occurred moments prior and felt like a clear moment of unity regarding the crowd as people wrapped their arms around those next to them and sang each word through eyes that threatened to mist.
Next up was “E.M.D.” (or “Eat My Dust”) by The David Grisman Quintet, a pick-a-thon song that acted as a sort of bridge between the slower “Show Me the Door” and the absolutely huge “Doin’ Things Right” that would follow. “Doin’ Things Right” had the whole crowd moving as much as space would allow, smiles shining out in the cascading arena lights. For a time, the entire world existed right in that room, everything outside the arena walls faded away, replaced by hope and the love emanating from each person giving themselves over to that crowd. The light and joy found within the hearts of all in attendance radiated out through each person’s chest and converged, intertwined with that of their neighbor, proving that when we as people overcome that which divides us and come together, we have the potential for glory.
The song and its incredible peaks and valleys came to a close and was followed by “Living Like an Animal,” which led into “New Country Blues” by Colorado-based The Emmitt-Nershi Band. They then ended the set with an incredible “On the Line” into “Ruby Are You Mad?” by The Osborne Brothers. Billy thanked the crowd and told them they’d be right back before leaving the stage.
Many stood in stunned silence for a time, still processing all they’d just experienced and reconciling with the fact that there was still a lot of show ahead. Once that period broke, people began moving, getting beers, food, saying “hi” to friends. The set break felt quick, and soon the house music stopped and the lights went down once again. Billy and the band returned, and one of the best sets of music this writer’s seen in a minute began.
The set started off slow, ethereal, as they swirled around a cover of “Home of the Red Fox” by Bill Emerson. This rolled into the beloved “How Mountain Girls Can Love” by The Stanley Brothers and the set truly was underway.
The next run of songs needs to be studied, preserved in history, etched into the annals of mankind. It began with “Rocky Raccoon,” a much-loved and somewhat tongue-in-cheek Beatles song about a jilted lover seeking revenge and getting hurt because of it. It’s a song that’s lived on through generations and will continue to do so. It led beautifully into “Escanaba” off Billy’s album Highway Prayers, released last year. It’s a Spanish-flavored instrumental tune that was the perfect setup for “Gild the Lily,” which followed.
My god, “Gild the Lily” is such a beautiful song. It has the same feeling as reading Ralph Waldo Emerson, a celebration of the natural world. It feels like giving yourself over to the mercy of the universe, the uncertainty in the world something to surrender to rather than fight against. The song has also had quite a lot of mainstream attention, leading to it being one of the night’s most memorable songs as the crowd sang along and knew every word.
The biggest “Meet Me at the Creek” this writer’s ever seen then followed. Again, it was absolutely life-affirming, a scorching adventure through highs and lows that had the potential to light those in the crowd’s very souls aflame. It was around 20 minutes of pure abandon, a story meant to get lost within that can teach us about our own stories, the peaks and valleys of our lives, the fires we walk through on our way to cool ourselves by the proverbial creek. The jam was so dynamic and gave every member a chance in the spotlight. When the jam wrapped up and that chorus came back, the crowd became almost deafening, the moment pure catharsis, joy itself put to music.
Once that monstrosity of a jam came to a close, things began to move rather quickly. The band was running out of time and still had quite a few songs to get through. “Ashland Breakdown” by Bill Monroe followed and led into “My Alice,” a quieter, more mournful tune that sounds like the winds themselves lamenting hearts long broken.
Finally, the show wrapped up with a breakneck “Fire on My Tongue” that had the crowd losing it once again. This led into another fan favorite cover, Johnny Horton’s “Ole Slew Foot,” which featured Billy doing his iconic extended “WEEEEEEELLLLLL” that sends fans into a frenzy. The show came to a close with Bob Dylan’s “Drifter’s Exchange,” the band having played so long that they were being time-checked and forced to cut their encore. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful way to end things, even though it really was just the beginning of an incredible weekend of music. Billy thanked the crowd, told them he’d see them tomorrow and to get home safe and left the stage. The crowd stood in blinking disbelief before wandering out into the cold Denver night to get ready to do it all over again.
All photography courtesy of Jesse Faatz.