Pigeons Playing Ping Pong Welcome The Revivalists’ Rob Ingraham and Eggy at Tipitina’s

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, photo by Dino Perrucci

After a sparing few appearances in the fall so far, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong returned to their typical breakneck touring pace over the weekend to kick off a jam-packed November tour.  On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the road warrior quartet got rolling again with three engagements in Charlotte, N.C., Atlanta and New Orleans; while all three showed the best of the band’s infectious jam-funk, their NOLA show raised the bar with several surprise sit-ins.

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong began their performance at New Orleans’ historic Tipitina’s on Sunday, Nov. 9, with the decade-plus live staple “Bad for You,” featured on 2016’s Pleasure. This tried-and-true opener brought the band to another reliable cut with “Porcupine,” followed by “Right Track,” the first of the evening’s three inclusions from their recent eighth studio album Feed the Fire; the latter cut was deftly merged into “Skipjack.”

In the middle of their set, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong treated their audience to an unexpected guest spot from The Revivalists’ saxophonist Rob Ingraham. The storied New Orleans-based accompanist lent his fiery roots-rock sound to “Poseidon,” which reached anthemic heights as it tore off into a treatment of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.” After leading the band back down to sea-level for a bookending passage from “Poseidon,” Ingraham stepped away, leaving the core quartet to bombastic versions of “Twitch” – also from Feed the Fire – and their recent stand-alone single “Go with It.”

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong expanded their arrangement yet again by calling on keyboardist Dani Battat of opening act Eggy, who accented a segued sprint through “Spacejam,” “The Hop” and “F.U.” After closing out their main set with “Julia,” the band went even further for their encore, calling up guitarist Jake Brownstein, bassist Michael Goodman and drummer Alex Bailey for a full Pigeons and Eggy encore cover of Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf.”

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong will return to the stage tonight for a performance at Jackson, Miss.’s Duling Hall. Find tickets and more information at pigeonsplayingpingpong.com.

Find the full setlist from Sunday night here.