I really need to start writing more of my own reviews of the shows that I go to... Obviously I go to most of them with Viv, but we have different experiences. Ideally these won't be song-for-song reviews but kind of general overviews. Especially once things get heavy in a couple of weeks.
I saw a show at "Meadowbrook Farm", now known as Meadowbrook Musical Arts Center, three years ago. Kind of a dumpy place back then - no pavement, no ROOF, just white folding chairs on a dirt field with a grassy slope in the back. Well, my venue's all grownsed up. Now it's a nice pavilion with real seats, plenty of leg room and a roof - and good sound! The open-air venues are nice because there isn't as much boxy reverb as in bars/clubs. This was a GA show so we got dead center seats at the back of the first section...ideal for taping. People around us were a little chatty for Ben Folds' set but they settled down for Guster and Rufus.
Ben's set was quite impressive - I'd only ever seen Ben Folds Five, and even then, just once, at the Tufts Spring Fling about five years ago (with, of all bands, the Cherry Poppin' Daddies and the Sugar Hill Gang). Wasn't impressed then but I think it was the general atmosphere - they were very low-key and played more slow material, and compared to the other two acts they seemed even MORE blah. But last night was a different story. One episode in particular featured a speaker popping or short-circuiting, letting out a huge BANG - the first time, Ben stopped, said "Whoa! What the fuck?" and kept playing. It happened again, even louder, and pretending to be shot, he toppled off his stool, and fell twitching to the ground. Got back up, started a different song and came back later. I didn't recognize a lot of the music but a very entertaining show (including some interplay between artists - Guster came out for two songs, "Give Judy My Notice" and "Fair", while Rufus sang with Ben on a cover of George Michael's "Careless Whisper").
Guster's set was good but didn't blow me away. Of course, eighty-something shows makes me a little more critical of the guys but the crowd was REALLY into them. Everyone had stayed in their seats, mostly sitting, for Ben's set, but in what Ryan later termed a "great experiment in crowd mentality" (or something to that effect), a few people got up from the front row to dance in the very front, which was an open area maybe 10-15 feet deep in front of the first row. Then came the flood of people from everywhere, and that filled up for the rest of the show. Most everyone was standing for Guster's entire set - even for Come Downstairs & Say Hello, which is the prototypical "everyone sit back down" song.
Rufus...well...not a big fan. Ben was the one who claimed to be getting really sick that day, but in all honesty, it sounded like Rufus' nose was plugged the whole show...whenever he breathed in during the middle of a song, it was very loud and shrill, and through his mouth, and right into the microphone. He's got a great, powerful voice, and a very intense performance, but the vocal tic just bothered the hell out of me. His banter, compared with Ben's and Guster's, wasn't on par, and even bordered on insulting at times, calling the locals "log-choppers" and "lake people". He had a few good stories - one about getting slammed by Bea Arthur (of all people) and another one about his mother calling him late at night to tell him to take a baked ham from catering with him on the tour bus - but for the most part they interfered with and overlapped with his songs, which really detracted from the overall flow of the performance. For comparison's sake, there was a bit of seat-drumming at the end of Ben's set to get him to come out for an encore, and some thunderous seat-drumming (appropriate, no?) after Guster's set, but just some polite clapping after Rufus's.
I'm looking forward to the next three shows of this tour - Ben mentioned he was feeling under the weather so he didn't come out and play with Guster or Rufus, so that's something to see, I'm sure. It may not quite be the "Guster rebirth" for me that it is for Viv, but it's good to see them on an equal billing with other similarly-minded artists that are able to interact to such a degree. I'm feeling lucky to catch them towards the end of their tour together rather than the beginning, when they were still working the kinks out and figuring out how to play together.
Next stop, FleetBoston Pavilion, next Thursday...
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