"Awesome concert" were the words used by "Alabama Beachlife" described on cmt.com's web site's report on their live broadcast of the One Love One Ocean performance on the Country Music Television channel on Sunday night. Jimmy Buffet must be this guy's hero.
I happened to do a bit of channel surfing at about the time the concert started, found the performance and was intrigued. I remember a few Jimmy Buffet songs that hit the airwaves when I was in college and thought I might listen in. Who knows, maybe I'd find another fairly popular act that was out-of-the-mainstream to enjoy on my mp3 player which is not an iPod. (It's about 150 cheaper for the same functions.) I listened to 80 minutes of the concert before leaving for a walk in the park. Apparently, I missed hearing "Margaritaville" as the cmt.com's web site mentioned that the concert went an hour and a half without commercials.
There was an expectation to experience a show that would make me a fan or make me turn off the tube. It did neither.
After closely listening to the guitar work, the lyrics, the background vocals, the percussion the conclusion was: nothing special. The twenty- to forty-something audience, shown often, was not in love with the music they had paid to see. They were singing along at the beach, they were happy. They were not entranced.
Looking back at a few concerts while in my forties that had the power to captivate, such as The Blue Man Group and Piano Men (B Joel and E John) made the three hours feel like an out of world experience. Watching the DVD of Dire Straits at Wembley Stadium still installs goose bumps. The Jimmy Buffet concert didn't even goose the girls in the second row.
It wasn't bad. It wasn't awesome, it just was. While the the set-ups for the songs, explaining about the upcoming selections: "Son of a Son of a Sailor" and "Nobody from Nowhere" were intriguing there were no clever twists in the verse. The musical introductory measures to "Rumba Man" sung by the co-writer or writer or friend or somebody who came on stage to sing it, appealed. But then the thoughts didn't really lead towards touching or clever or sarcastic. Harry Chapin, Jim Croce, or Jim Taylor, would have spent some creative vibes on making the words just right. At the very least, Paul Simon would think up all sorts of alliteration. Time to create? Buffet MUST have had time to work on the message on all the beaches, bars, and honky-tonks that he claimed were home, mentioned often in each interlude between songs.
At least the instruments weren't off tune in the salty air. There was no special guitar work. The start of every song had the drummer hit his sticks together four times. Four four beat on your whole show? I learned all my first year piano songs in four/four time with an occasional three/four time thrown in to confuse me. These guys weren't confused. They made a big paycheck for being the same.
If you were offered to give a 1 -10 rating on this concert, you'd put down what you answered on your latest office survey. Five. This means you aren't finding anything to comment on, you don't like the topic much, but not enough to dislike it, either.
At the end of the show, one could relate to the lyrics to the aforementioned Nobody from Nowhere. "We’re just waiting for a car to drive by, Just so we can wave..."
My mp3 player is safe from an additional artist.
The reviewer on cmt.com's page might edit his or her comments when he sobers up.
