Zoo Station (and Dalton Brothers) at Slim's

Zoo Station (The Complete U2 Experience!) commemorated the 20th Anniversary of The Joshua Tree Saturday night by performing the entire album live (in order) Saturday night to a sell-out crowd at Slim's. It was actually more fun than I expected, and that was just the first half of their show. During the second half they ran through a set of hits including "Elevation," "Out of Control/Blitzkrieg Bop," "The Fly," "Pride," and "Bad."

The opening act was Culann's Hounds, which blend traditional Irish music with punk rock. They were much more fun than I imagined. Because I certainly never imagined "What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor" in the same set as "I Wanna Be Sedated." And never have I seen a button accordion rocked so hard. Or rocked at all.

But prior to Culann's Hounds performance was a set by The Dalton Brothers and I'm glad I didn't miss it. For a brief history: during the Joshua Tree Tour, U2 donned wigs and costumes and opened up some of their own shows as a country/western act called The Dalton Brothers, consisting of Luke, Duke, Betty and Alton Dalton (YouTube Video).

So Zoo Station did the same, for apparently this one show, and it was way more entertaining than I figured a band pretending to be U2 pretending to be a country/western band could be (expectations exceeded on three levels). Not only did they perform some country/western tunes like "King of the Road" and "Lucille" they also performed some songs U2 wrote for legends Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash ("Mystery Girl" and "The Wanderer," respectively).

A long evening, but totally worth it.