Ray LaMontagne w/ The Belle Brigade/Jason Isbell – Boston, MA 5/30/14 (Show Review)

The pairing of Ray LaMontagne and Jason Isabell couldn’t have made for a better bill and their performance on Boston’s waterfront was proof. It was the first event of the season for the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion (formerly Bank of America Pavilion, formerly Harbor Lights). The sound was a bit raw and some kinks in the production need working out but for the most part, the average ticket holder was unaffected by the rough logistics.

Prior to either acts performance, the night started off with a short set by The Belle Brigade, a hard hitting neo-folk act fronted by siblings Barbara and Ethan Gruska who also serve as LaMontagne’s backing band. The Belle Brigades bassist had a lot of chemistry with LeMontagne, but during their opening set, the spotlight belonged to the Gruska siblings. Ethan’s vocals and guitar playing were as front and center as it gets and while his sisters mic was mixed too low to appreciate her vocals, the power in her beat keeping was a sight to be seen, let alone hear.

Isabell made a name for himself as one of the lead vocalists of whiskey rockers Drive-By Truckers. Since leaving the group, he has taken a more mellowed, matured approach to song writing that is accessible to any fan of LaMontagne. The bulk of his set focused on material off Southeastern, one of the stronger releases of 2013.  Throughout the set, it kept sounding like a steel pedal guitar was being used, and it wouldn’t have been out of place, but it turned out that Isabell’s lead guitarist was using an E-Bow, a device held by the strumming hand of a guitarist that causes the strings to vibrate without end, creating the effect of infinite sustain. The E-Bow is a lot better known on more abstract recordings, such as Radiohead’s “The National Anthem,” but Isabell proved it could bring a lot to the table with regards to southern fried folk ballads.

It’s fair to say LaMontagne took a very different direction on his recent release, Supernova, and his show followed suit. The golden voiced New Englander has made a career out of writing heartfelt tunes with mostly bare-bones instrumentals backing him as he bleeds his heart into the mixing consol. On the new album, he’s taken a more experimental turn and during his set, at times he sounded like a cross between Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd and Village Green Preservation Society-era Kinks. A big part of the change in sound should be credited to The Belle Brigade, who really brought out the best in LaMontagne. The group performed “Beg Steel or Borrow,” a tune he recorded with the Pariah Dogs, but where the Pariah Dogs brought some honkey tonk to LaMontagne’s sound, The Belle Brigade expanded his sonic pallet into a psychedelic realm it now feels like he was destined to reach.  The Belle Brigade even brought an interesting edge to older tunes like “Jolene,” “Trouble,” and “Meg White.”

LaMontagne and The Belle Brigade brought the show to a close with a sing-a-long friendly encore or “Hey Me, Hey Mama,” followed by “Drive-In Movies,” that sent his capacity crowd home in the rain. It would have been nice to see Isabell and LaMontagne share the stage for a song or two, but seeing two primed, top-tier songsmiths on one stage doesn’t leave much for anyone in attendance to be disappointed in.