I had a chance to check out a great Guster show the other night. Sadly I walked in after Mason Jennings‘ opening set was over, and haven’t heard much about it. I like the guy’s music though, hope he comes through again.
Anyways, Guster was quite a treat, as this was my first chance to see the band. Their set was somewhat short, 9:15 – 10:45, but they did manage to pack in a good amount of songs in that time span and managed to make the show feel unique. More after the jump:
A few quick tunes including a very surfy “The New Underground” started off the show. The band took a moment to comment on the recent events of Chief Illiniwek at the university, since the show coincided with the Chief’s last performance. It went something like this:
“I understand you all have a historic sporting event occuring tonight. I’m not going to comment on the controversy, but I would like to point something out. You all had the chance to see something historic, and you came here. So that’s cool.”
After that little bit of commentary the band went through a relaxed “Come Downstairs and Say Hello.” I managed to get full video of the next track, “Happier,” which I’ll have uploaded soon when I get my camera cable back, keep an eye out for that future post. Moments later the band performed an amusing little tune which they only referred to as the “Theme Song For Brazil.” Any help naming that one would be great, but it reminded me of the kind of song They Might Be Giants would have written, silly and disposable yet it spiced up the set just right.
At this point in the evening I was lucky enough to run into an employee of the venue who I knew, and we headed up to the projection room. For those who have never been to Foellinger Auditorium, the bottom of the balcony is a good 20 feet above the floor, and the projection room is another 20-30 feet above that. Couple with a new camera with 10x optical zoom I managed to get some amazing pictures of the entire venue at once. Check out the photo below to see what I mean, or check out the entire photo set at Flickr.com/photos/BurningOak. They squeezed in a quick “Amsterdam,” always a crowd favorite and a good sing-along for the newer fans. The band dedicated “I Spy” to local pizzeria Papa Del’s, but not before a quick spoof of Beastie Boys’ “Girls” with the word ‘girls’ replaced by ‘sports.’ Can’t say I recall what sparked that one but it was fun.
Some great guitar soloing on “Ruby Falls” led into a trumpet solo to end the song. Immediately following, the band began a couple-minute crescendo into “C’mon” that involved an impromptu ‘More Cowbell’ dialogue. The band took a moment to talk about their environmental efforts with what I’ll refer to as the “Kiss Me, I’m Carbon Neutral” jam. The band proceeded into a techno-dance fueled rendition of “Homecoming King” that would make the likes of The Disco Biscuits jealous and ended with hundreds of bouncy balls being thrown at the stage – a reference or tradition I didn’t catch, anyone know what that’s about?
After calling for the crowd to “murmur amongst themselves for an encore” and never leaving the stage the guys played through “Empire State,” “Satellite,” and finished with “Barrel of a Gun” before leaving the stage. Moments later they returned and treated the audience to a non-amplified, acoustic “Jesus On The Radio (Daddy On The Phone),” with a single spotlight focused on the four band members front and center on the stage. Quite an impressive moment, reminiscent of Phish’s non-amplified “Amazing Grace” and other tunes.
All-in-all the band put on a good show for the time they used. I don’t know how well they switch up their setlists from show to show, but they played material from all of their releases and kept the audience engaged far better than I expected, I’d say they were worth another visit in the future, and definitely worth your time if you’ve never caught them live.
My setlist results, with a few gaps:
Set One:
1) ?
2) Demons >
3) Center of Attention
4) One Man Wrecking Machine
5) The New Underground
6) Come Downstairs and Say Hello
7) Happier (video coming)
8) Manifest Destiny
9) “Theme Song of Brazil”
10) ?
11) Amsterdam
12) Beastie Boys’ “Girls”
13) I Spy
14) Careful
15) Ruby Falls
16) “More Cowbell Crescendo” > C’mon
17) “Kiss Me I’m Carbon Neutral” Jam
18) Homecoming King
19) “Murmur Encore”
20) Empire State
21) Satellite
22) Barrel Of A GunEncore:
E) Jesus On The Radio (Acoustic, Non-Amplified)