I would say that 99% of people on earth go to fewer concerts than Mrs. Dave and I. But when you record them for a hobby, there's a certain mania to justify your purchase of expensive recording equipment by using it as much as physically possible. In that regard, I know dozens of people who have justified their expenditures more than tenfold. Per year. I'm sure that if I went to as many shows as these people, I might just end up enjoying the single life again. Well, maybe enjoying isn't exactly the right word. There's something to be said for a quiet evening at home. But after the excitement of my birthday weekend, we traveled to my in-laws' place for a more or less relaxing weekend, we decided we'd had enough of the R&R thing, and plunged headlong into a musical binge the likes of which we hadn't done in a while. Let the justifying begin.
The first stop was something we'd known about for months before it was even announced, thanks to a little birdie who'd chirped in our ear to tell us to buy tickets. And so it was that we got all dressed up in our finest duds to descend upon Symphony Hall in Boston for two nights of Guster playing with the Boston Pops. Apparently the Pops had been interested in playing with a local band for a while. It's still not quite clear if Guster was their first choice or if they were a bit down on the list, but other than Aerosmith, it's hard to think of too many Boston-area bands that would be appropriate for symphonic accompaniment. And considering that a large percentage of Pops tickets are sold on a season-ticket basis, I somehow have trouble imagining that the tea-and-crumpets crowd would have been quite so thrilled to bear witness to Steven Tyler mounting his microphone stand and whipping his hair around on the stage while the band and the accompanists crashed their way through "Train Kept A-Rollin'". Though I'd have paid good money to see that - Aerosmith was one of my favorite bands growing up, and actually the first tape I bought was "Pump", followed by "Permanent Vacation". Still a band I want to see live someday.
But be that all as it may, Guster was the one who got the call, and sometime back around April or so, two members of the Pops flew out to Wisconsin to meet the band on the road and begin arrangements - both musical and logistical - to adapt the band's music for a 70-piece orchestra. The results were unquestionably majestic. Nearly tear-jerking in my wife's case. There were some who questioned the song choices - and the wisdom of choosing new material that the fandom was unfamiliar with, since they would be unable to compare it with the comparatively stripped-down live or album version - but just the fact that they were up on the stage of Boston's Symphony Hall, with its gold baroque flourishes and the oval "Beethoven" escutcheon topping it off, was a pride-inducing moment that made it all worthwhile. Even the songs we hadn't heard before - like "Empire State" - were sufficiently symphonized to make us more than excited for the upcoming album (coming out one of these years...thanks, record company!).
Night one was a bit spotty in places, which was understandable. Even more so once we found out that other than the two musicians they'd met in Wisconsin, and Keith Lockhart (the conductor), they'd only met the rest of the Pops that morning. Brian's drum set was a bit overwhelming in spots, despite it not even being played over the PA - it was only miked for their in-ear mix - and the orchestra came in a bit early/loud on some occasions. But night two was much looser and stronger - some more on-stage banter, some interaction between the band and symphony and crowd - and things just seemed a bit more together. Thanks to Brian's road journal entry after the fact, we found out that they may have more in store with the Pops for the future. I suppose we can only dream of an entire tour...that would make for an ENORMOUS amount of monetary justification...
Two nights later, we journeyed down to the waterfront town of Newport, Rhode Island, for our third show in five days. When we walked in the front door and realized it was a seated venue and that they'd be playing a full 90-minute set, we also realized that it was the first time we'd seen a regular, non-college, non-opening, full set from Guster since last February at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton. Since then it had been three college shows (including one in Newport!), three shows with Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright, and two more college shows. That's sixteen months between "normal" Guster gigs. Wow.
Normally for the end-of-tour shows, a band is tired from being on the road for so long, they're playing one random show that they tacked onto the end of the tour, and they're just looking to play it and get home. Guster falls into that trap sometimes, especially when it's a free outdoor gig or a college gig, but they brought their A-game to Newport - banter galore, good playing, lots of energy on-stage, rave reviews all around. As good as the show was, our drive home was nearly as entertaining - we laughed for a good mile or two when passed by a pair of guys in a convertible. At 12:30am. Wearing sombreros, flapping in the considerable breeze generated from driving down the highway at 70mph with the top down. Then came the drive-through experience at Wendy's - I don't think the guy was prepared to take quite as many orders from one car as he did, but he had a good sense of humor about it. Then as we pulled around, I completely blew past his window...oops. Slowly backing up, the cashier suddenly grimaced as an earsplittingly loud woman placed her order, bellowing over the loudspeaker. He turns to us, covers his mic with one hand, winces, and quietly exclaims "Daaamn!" We got our food and hightailed it out of there. Somehow, chicken tenders just don't taste as good any other time as they do at 1 in the morning...
