Crows, Franti, Augustana warmly bring Circus to town
Bank of America Pavilion, Boston, August 31, 2009
Reviewed by Jeffrey B. Remz
This wasn't the typical concert for the Counting Crows, Michael Franti and Spearhead and Augustana. For starters, all three groups were on stage for the lead-off number, Van Morrison's Caravan and Franti's Hello Bonjour. At that point, though, it was the Crows who took over on stage before ceding the stage to the other bands in the Traveling Circus and Medicine Show tour.
This was a night where the bands were joined by players from other bands, sometimes all of them, sometimes a few of them, often at least Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows, presumably the brains behind the entire operation.
While it may sound and did look complicated at times to figure it all out, far more often than not, the night worked out just fine.
The Counting Crows enjoyed the longest time on stage with the band sounding good. Duritz was an engaging performer, but he also shied away from dominating.
Each band had a chance to do their own thing. Augustana mined a softer sound, and at least they did not have to pander to the crowd as so many other bands feel compelled to do when coming through Boston. When lead singer Dan Layus said he sat the piano and said, "This is a song I wrote about your beautiful town," he meant it. With that, he launched into the San Diego's band biggest hit, Boston.
The group proved they could step it up sonically, following up Boston with the far more up-tempo and faster Either Way, I'll Break Your Heart Someday, which had a good build.
With that, the group's stint during the first set gave way to everyone coming up to do a hot version of the reggae hit Walk And Don't Look Back, with Franti taking the lead on the vocals.
While Duritz certainly had a good chunk of energy and was into the music, Franti proved to be the most energizing performer out there Long and tall, Franti bounced about the stage.
On Walk and during the second set, Franti and Spearhead was the most captivating performer. Franti gladly wore the cheerleader, good-time role quite easily on songs such as Say Hey (I Love You), his current single. He said he and his band waited for 15 years to have somewhat of a hit on their hands, and now they are gaining airplay and a lot of myspace visitors with Say Hey where Franti got three youngsters on stage to dance along to the music.
He also was aided time and again by his backing singer, Cherine Anderson of Jamaica, who provided a good contrast to the rest to the male-dominated bands. Spearhead was quite strong in its own right with a lot of good grooves going.
The problem with such a show was that a band could get into gear, but instead of keeping it going, they had to give up the stage to another act. Such were the potential pitfalls of the set-up.
But the key ingredient was that there was a free flowing atmosphere throughout. That was evidenced by pairings of the Crows and Augustana on Just Like a Woman and Angel From Montgomery.
The best part of the evening was the encore. All three acts were on stage for the four-song encore of Simon and Garfunkel's Cecilia, Remote Control, Rain King and the closing song, which included snippets of The Beatle's A Little Help From My Friends.
There seemed little doubt as Duritz introduced every member on stage - about 17 of them - as "my friend" most of the time that in fact the three groups had bonded and became friends musically.
