Back in March of 2000, Mrs. Dave and I got a wild hair and decided to take a completely random road trip to Michigan and Ohio, of all places, to see Guster out of their natural habitat. The reasoning behind this was that we'd get to see them in smaller venues, in cities where they weren't yet as well known as they were back in their home base of New England. Opening these three shows - as well as a half-dozen we saw after we came back from that trip - was a diminutive Nashvillian singer/songwriter by the name of Josh Rouse. As is my tendency, I taped the opening act just because I could, and while I didn't pay rapt attention for the first show or two, we bought his CD after the first night, using it as road trip music for the remainder of our voyage, where it slowly grew on us as good, laid-back music for a late-night drive.
Two years later, Guster once again chose Josh as their opening act for a brief east coast tour (where we crazy kids caught seven of the ten shows they played over a two-week span). He had a new album out and another in the pipeline, and this time around we were definitely hooked, especially by the two songs he had just written while on a recent tour of Europe, which would be on this new album.
2003 came and went, his album 1972 came out, we bought it and enjoyed it greatly. He played a Boston gig, which we unfortunately missed, and 2004 didn't even see him swing through here as he was back in the studio, recording yet another album. Nashville dropped in February, and even back then we already knew that he'd be coming to Boston on April 9th, so we made plans, set aside that night, and waltzed into our favorite local venue, ready to enjoy our first headlining Josh experience.
Opening the show was Amy Correia, a local singer-songwriter who'd gotten a glowing write-up in the Globe just the day before. Unfortunately, she did not live up to expectations; performing solo can be a tricky task and she did very little to engage the crowd, leaving her set rather flat and unable to hold our attention for very long.
Then at 10:30, Josh strolled on stage with the latest configuration of his band - the 2002 lineup plus an extra guitarist/vocalist - and launched right into the first track from Nashville, the bouncy-smooth "It's the Nighttime". Two more new tracks followed before he dug into a few 1972 cuts which really got the crowd bouncing. He even went so far as to sport a crowd member's pink and black faux-zebra pimp chapeau during the upbeat groove of "James", handed it back before the slinky "Love Vibration" and finished up the short 1972 run with the pensive "Rise". The second half of his show saw him go further back into the catalog, as he brought out tunes from his earlier works, all of which were well-received. The main set ended (far too soon, we all agreed unanimously) with an extended outro jam on "Flight Attendant". A scant two minutes of clapping yielded a four-song encore, including a guest vocal spot from the opener on "1972" and winding up with a hyper-energetic "Slaveship" - probably my least favorite 1972 track but a good show closer. And then, 85 minutes after he had started, it was over, and we were on our way home. Almost early, in fact...
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