Although I’m always playing concert catch-up with Pat, this fall has turned into quite the concert season. I’ve already been to three excellent concerts and have at least three more lined up for the rest of the year.
Counting Crows
As many of you know, this one of my favorite bands (arguably my overall favorite), and their music and live performance style has had a major influence on my songwriting. I’ve seen them several times before, but I didn’t want to pass up on the opportunity to see them in San Diego when I heard about the concert. It was extra exciting because they were close to releasing their first new original music in over 6 years, their new album Somewhere Under Wonderland. I’m planning to go into more detail on the new album in an upcoming review, so I’ll skip the details here, but the short story is I’m really liking their new stuff so far! I’ll get the bad parts out of the way first. The concert was at the Del Mar Racetrack, and it turned out to be probably the worst concert experience I’ve ever had in terms of the setup. Basically, there was a very low stage set up in a parking lot, and one little entrance for the hundreds of people crowding into the parking lot, so when Mary and I finally got in, we could barely see the stage at all. We had to keep pushing around tall people until we could see parts of the stage. I’m not sure if Mary even saw Adam Duritz the whole show!
Fortunately, that was the only bad part. The Crows played an excellent show! If anything, they’ve gotten even more comfortable, confident, and crazy over the years. Early in the set they played “St. Robinson in is Cadillac Dream,” which is a folksier song that I really like. Then they played the album version of “Mr. Jones,” which I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard them play live! I was very excited that they played “Omaha,” one of my all-time Crows favorites, with some awesome accordion by Charlie, and ridiculous vocals, especially at the end, by Adam Duritz. My favorite song of the concert was “Miami,” which included a chill-inducing solo by Immy. They kicked the encore off with “Palisades Park,” one of the new tracks that is a fun one to listen to. Then they played “Rain King” and totally rocked it! They closed with the usual “Holiday in Spain.”
One of the things I really like about their live shows is how they trade off the spotlight. All of the band members are such great instrumentalists, and even with seven people up on stage, it never seemed crowded and the music never seemed washed out by too much sound. David, Dan and Immy traded off lead guitar duties just about every song. Charlie jumped between keys and accordion. Millard, the bassist, even played the piano on “Holiday in Spain.” I had a great time singing along with the classics and hearing some of the new songs, and I hope they come back sometime and play at a better venue.
Portugal, the Man. and Grouplove
I haven’t been a close follower of either of these bands, but I’ve liked the songs of heard by Portugal, the Man. and Grouplove is kind of a guilty pleasure of mine… When my friend (and excellent drummer) Chris invited me to this concert, I couldn’t turn it down. It was my first experience at SDSU Open Air Theater, which I thought was an excellent venue! Portugal, the Man. came right out and played their hit “Purple Yellow Red and Blue,” and their mix of guitars, synths, drums, and vocals layered together to create one of the fullest sounds I’ve heard from a band playing live. The lead singer and bassist had great chemistry and did a lot of vocal parts together. They played a lot of songs, most of which I hadn’t heard before, but a few of them really stuck in my head, like “Modern Jesus” and “Evil Friends”. A cover of “Day Man” was an awesome surprise (and it was just a little bit better than Charlie’s version). If they’re ever back in town, I’ll be going to the show for sure!
From Grouplove’s set, I really enjoyed their hits “Tongue Tied” and “Ways to Go”, but to be honest, I had a hard time getting into the rest of their set. Maybe it just paled in comparison to Portugal, the Man.’s (not sure how to put an apostrophe after a period…). Either way, the show was a lot of fun!
Jason Mraz with Raining Jane
It’s always a great experience seeing a musician who has inspired me so much throughout my musical life. I remember the first time I saw Jason Mraz, it was at Riverfest in Detroit in 2008, not long after We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things was released. He played with so much energy and we could tell he was having a great time on stage. Of course, he was just getting rolling with “I’m Yours”. That show had such an impact on me and Pat, and we became huge fans of Jason and his music from that day on. Fast forward 6 years, and we have a very different Jason Mraz; a more mature and soft spoken Jason Mraz sharing the stage with Raining Jane, a respectable band on its own. Jason even played piano on an awesome rendition of Plane, which was one of my favorites from the show. The new tracks had to grow on me at first, but by the time of the show, I couldn’t get the album out of my head! I thought they totally rocked “3 Things,” “Back to the Earth,” and “Hello, You Beautiful Thing.” The harmonies and instrumentation were just excellent, and Mona is so charismatic with her percussion and singing that it’s easy to get distracted by her and forget there’s a whole band playing around her.
Other than what’s already been mentioned, there were two definite highlights for me. The first was a surprise appearance of Toca! Jason and Toca played a few acoustic songs together. It was awesome seeing them together again, if only for a few short tracks. My favorite part of the show was a perfectly synchronized “music video.” Jason and Mona told us a story about how they went on a trip to Antarctica to see the effects of global warming and explore some nature, and then they made a video of their song, “Bottom of the Sea.” I was really impressed by the performance, and the video was really good! Here’s a video someone took at a different performance:
Overall, it was a great show, I can’t wait until Jason Mraz comes back to San Diego on his next tour!