Time apart pays off for the Wallflowers
Published: September 05, 2009, 12:30 am
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Taking some time apart can do wonders for a band. If a group of musicians has been been working together for a good length of time, dealt with the roller coaster of commercial success and its opposite, and spent more time with each other than with their families, sometimes a cease-fire is in order.
It worked for Phish. And based on Friday’s Wallflowers gig at the Erie Canal Harbor, it worked for that band as well.
A mellower Wallflowers, in many ways—but one that has gained so much from the maturity earned by its songwriter, Jakob Dylan, during the band’s temporary break.
Dylan put out a strong solo album, “Seeing Things,” and became a deeper, darker songwriter in the process.
None of that solo material made the set during Friday’s show— though much of it could have made the jump from its acoustic format to the full-band setting quite nicely— but somehow, Dylan seemed . . . different.
It was as if he had gained something from the experience of hitting the top of the charts, and then dealing with the much more humbling flip side of that coin.
With the help of new guitarist Stuart Mathis, Dylan led the Wallflowers through a career-spanning set that included many of the songs that made the band famous—from the platinum album “Bringing Down the Horse”—and deeper cuts from less popular but equally dynamic albums like “Red Letter Days.”
The band opened with “Back to California,” from the “Rebel, Sweetheart” album, and right away, a deep, bass-heavy groove was established.
No one in the band—including Dylan himself—is much of a showman. That shouldn’t really matter too much, and it didn’t seem to Friday. The large crowd, stoked by a killer opening set from Tea Leaf Green, and buzzed about the great weather, got into it from the get-go and stayed into it until the last notes faded away over the waterfront.
The band favored deeper cuts, early on, including the stirring folk-rock piece, “If You Never Got Sick,” and the greasy, low-down bluesy rocker, “Closer to You.”
But naturally, the much-adored “6th Avenue Heartache” was the song that really got the crowd singing, dancing and generally submitting to Dylan and company’s subtle sway.
Dylan, like his father, has a way with a ballad, and “Josephine” is a gorgeous one, the whiskey-tinged tonality of the singer’s voice lending added poignancy to a beautifully written song.
The Wallflowers commercial star may have faded a bit over the past decade, but the band has only gotten better.
The band maintained a subtle energy throughout Friday’s show, and it drew the crowd in. The Wallflowers remain one of the finest American roots-rock bands going.
San Francisco’s Tea Leaf Green opened and came dangerously close to stealing the show from Dylan.
Blending folk, pop, rock, dub and reggae, funk and the combination of all that is generally known as “jam band” music, the group traced a dynamic, emotional and deeply musical arc across the span of its hour-plus set.
This is a band well worth seeing, if you haven’t yet.
Concert Review
The Wallflowers
With Tea Leaf Green on Friday evening at Erie Canal Harbor as part of Buffalo Place Rocks the Harbor.
jmiers@buffnews.com
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