Butch Walker Live In Concert

So, the Butch Walker show at the the 9:30 Club was fantastic...once he finally got on stage. There were two opening acts, neither of which were particularly original or that good. The first was a sad Maroon 5 clone that thought turning on the "funk" effect on the keyboard would make them...well, funky. The lead singer was also under the impression he was Tom Jones, except he couldn't sing nearly that well. He also pulled out an ukelele at one point and played a uke with a wah-wah pedal. Seemed unnecessary to me. A little piece of my soul died when they asked the audience whether we wanted to hear a Beatles cover or a Radiohead cover. The Beatles "won," but I maintain that everyone loses when a band that bad tries to cover a band as good as the Beatles.

The second opening act was one of those pop-rock bands that sound like Good Charlotte and Dashboard Confessional and all those other bands that sound exactly alike and have no original ideas in their heads. It's not that the music was particularly bad, per se, just that there was nothing new about it.

Butch Walker's eventual arrival onstage made the previous two hours of agony seem all worthwhile. He's an excellent performer, and he really knows how to give the audience a hell of a good time. He tore through new and old songs alike, attacking the stuff from his days with the Marvelous 3 and his solo work with equal abandon and vigor. The Let's-Go-Out-Tonites! were a fantastic backing band; they were tight, supple, and fine-tuned throughout the show.

Overall, the Butch Walker show was about as good a rock show as you could ask for. The man knows how to play--both music and with his audience--and everyone seemed to have a good time. Can't wait until he comes through again.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Butch Walker, "Mixtape"