Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
BY MELISSA RUGGIERI
A Zac Brown Band concert is never monotonous because, unlike many of their country brethren, their sound travels across many sonic highways.
Country, rock, soul, gospel, big band – yes, big band! – are all part of the palette.
So even in those rare moments when things start to sound same-y from too many of those sweeping harmonies that they do so well (“Goodbye in Her Eyes,” “Colder Weather”), along comes the funk-thumping “Day for the Dead” or the immediately loveable lounge ditty, “Mango Tree.”
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
And then, of course, there are the covers.
At Friday night’s nearly sold out concert at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park (a few lawn tickets remain for Saturday’s encore performance), ZBB’s towering presence, John Driskell Hopkins, stepped to the mic for an early highlight – another knockout punch of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” which fans now almost expect to hear at the band’s shows.
The nearly three-hour concert was immensely fulfilling – aside from a momentum-draining 10-minute intermission –and included almost all of the songs from ZBB’s musically adventurous new album, “Jekyll + Hyde,” throwbacks to their more conventional early catalog and renditions of treasures by The Beatles (“Let It Be,” with a nicely reworked coda), Marshall Tucker Band (“Can’t You See,” spearheaded by onetime MTB member Clay Cook and his wonderfully soulful voice) and “Bohemian Rhapsody” (another ZBB staple that soared once everyone settled into the same key).
Only a few shows into their seven-month tour, which includes a few dates in the rarified air of stadiums, the band is already presenting an airtight product.
Their new stage is a stunner, a three-tiered behemoth etched in lights that doubles as a series of LED screens broadcasting inspired imagery. Drummer Chris Fryar, percussionist Daniel de los Reyes and a three-piece horn section were perched atop it, while staircases allowed Brown and guitarist Coy Bowles plenty of room to roam like rock stars.
Brown, his beard and physique noticeably trimmed, acknowledged the hometown crowd immediately after the opening song, the Philly-soul-groovin’ “Loving You Easy.”
“It’s good to be home,” he said with a big smile and a touch to the Braves baseball cap that replaced his omnipresent knit beanie.
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Brown’s warm voice sounded sturdy throughout the show – the high notes on “Colder Weather” presented a small challenge, but then he belted the heck out of “Remedy,” his plea for universal peace and love – and the band’s trademark harmonies escalated flawlessly.
ZBB’s 2008 breakthrough hit, “Chicken Fried,” had fans dancing and raising their plastic cups in alcoholic solidarity, but the song only served to remind how much the band has grown from this hokey hoedown.
They actually demonstrated it immediately by launching into “Day for the Dead,” one of their most interesting compositions layered with slide guitar, bongos, horns and scatting – and even some amusing choreography by the band.
At other points in the show, ZBB hopscotched from “Castaway,” a lost entry from Jimmy Buffett’s island adventure catalog, to Jason Isbell’s stirring “Dress Blues,” to the pleasant toe-tapper “Homegrown,” which launched the band back to the top of the country charts and helped “Jekyll + Hyde” debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this week.
With a rich sounded augmented by the low-end stylings of bassist Matt Mangano and the textured playing of violinist Jimmy De Martini ( you can read my recent interview with him here ), the band transported fans on a musically adventurous ride.
Kudos to Brown and his gang of elite musicians for shrugging off conventionality and doing things their way.
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