Concert Review - Guster @ Kresge Auditorium, Interlochen, Michigan

Tuesday, July 25 @ 9 PM

Another Guster concert, and another great show. I was especially excited for this show for a couple of reasons. First, it followed the release of the new album, "Ganging Up On The Sun", that was released on June 20. And second, the opening act was Ray Lamontagne (click here for my earlier post, a review of his album Trouble).

The venue was very cool. Interlochen is a performing arts academy located a few miles southwest of Traverse City. Kresge Auditorium is an outdoor pavilion located right on the water at Green Lake. The setting sun over the lake on a fair summer evening provided a magnificent back drop for the show.

Another band , The Fruit Bats, were on first. I hadn’t heard anything by them before, but I enjoyed their set, and I am looking forward to getting some of their music for further listening.

Ray LaMontagne was next, and as you probably know by now through my lauding of his debut album, I am a big fan of this artist. I was curious as to how his music would translate to a live performance, but any reservations I may have had were immediately erased with he started singing. For me, the highlights of his set were the unaccompanied encore (yes, he did an encore as an opening act) of “Burn” and the full band version of “Hold You In My Arms”, with emphasis and power added by heavier percussion in the chorus.

Guster opened rather unassumingly with “I Spy”, but don’t take that to mean it was unimpressive. That’s the thing about Guster. When they play it straight ahead, it’s great. And when they alter it or try something new, it’s better.

Here’s the set list:
I Spy
Captain
Diane
C’Mon
Careful
Barrel of a Gun
Airport Song
One Man Wrecking Machine
Ruby Falls
Happier
Manifest Destiny
Great Escape
Hang On
Amsterdam
Fa Fa
Encores:
Demons
Satellite
Beginning of the End
Come Downstairs and Say Hello

I was getting nervous that my favorite Guster tune wasn’t going to make the list, but I was relieved to hear the opening bars of “Come Downstairs and Say Hello” as the last song of the evening. If I am ever forced to make a list of the only 5 songs I can listen to for the rest of my life, “Come Downstairs and Say Hello” would be on it, and coming from a guy with almost 14,000 songs in his iTunes library, that’s a powerful endorsement.

I love the new album, and the new songs did not disappoint. For the trumpet solo at the end of “Ruby Falls”, Guster invited a student from Interlochen to play the part, and I gotta say, the kid nailed it. “One Man Wrecking Machine” was better than it was in Cincinnati back in April, I think maybe because they had some more time to work on it. I felt a sense of encouragement during “Hang On” that I hadn’t gotten from the CD. “Captain” was a little heavier than the album version, and I liked the difference.

Hearing a Guster CD is always cool, but seeing them live really gives you a feel for what the songs are supposed to be like. I always hear the songs differently after a show, and to me, the hallmark of a great band is one that can not only offer something new in a live performance, but can also change your perception of the song while doing it.

Guster. Great on CD. Greater in concert.

I’m out-
KWass