Mason Jennings and Animal Liberation Orchestra front man Zach Gill took to the stage last week at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore Theater.
Gill, on apparent hiatus from both ALO, and his duties on the keys as part of Jack Johnson’s band, started the night off with a full set of original solo material. His onstage setup consisted of himself on vocals and accordion, accompanied by a stand-up bassist and acoustic guitarist. His original, fun and goofy acoustic material had the crowd bouncing around, and sometimes busting up at his hilarious lyrics. He ended his set up on stage by himself, singing a fairytale-themed song about a guy named Dieter, the Devil and their legendary accordion battle in Bavaria.
Jennings took to the stage soon after and received a very warm reception from the packed crowd. After greeting his fans, he wasted to time getting down to business. Jennings started off with a few solo-acoustic songs showing off his unique ability to bring deeply contemplative lyrics to life with original and catchy melodies. After warming the crowd up, he called the rest of his simple three-piece band to the stage to pick up the pace. The band rolled through a set filled with a very well balanced mix of mellow, hard rocking, and funky jams.
The concert delivered quite the one-two punch between Gill kicking things off with his clever and entertaining, stripped down acoustic set, followed up by Jennings who brought down the house with his rock solid performance.
- Mason Jennings: Fighter Girl
8 Responses
Nice article! Mason Jennings is rad. And yeah, Bavaria is known for its accordion battles.
Really nice to see some coverage of this Jennings/Gill tour, thank you very much! Brief and on-point, but that being said, a little research and knowledge would help this piece be not only relevant but up to Glide’s standards. As short as it is, it feels way under-edited. I don’t mean to be a hard ass, sorry. no offense!
The stand-up bassist is Steve Adams and the acoustic guitarist is Dan Lebowitz, both from ALO. While they are not exactly touring, they are far from a hiatus after playing the Las Tortugas Festival over Halloween weekend. Plus, they are on the boat for JamCruise 2009 and they’ll be back on tour after that.
“The Devil Went Down to Bulgaria” tune is a bastardized cover of The Devil Went Down to Georgia, originally made famous by The Charlie Daniels Band. Pretty basic stuff, new or younger music writers and/or critics might miss it but I don’t know why this wasn’t edited in by the Glide peeps. This just feels “phoned in.”
“Yeah, well, I know, that’s just, like, MY opinion, man!”
You’re entitled to your opinion, Heady, and I respect you taking the time to share your thoughts.
I’ll tell you one thing. I headed over to YouTube to check out The Devil Went Down to Bulgaria, and it’s fairly entertaining:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21Q56UR_t6s
Yeah, I thought it was kind of weird to not recognize the adapted cover. But then again, the Bavarian is not the issue. I’m talking about the concert. This was a valued…
Gill was unexpectedly engaging, with unusual but tonal harmonies, hilarious lyrics, and a flexibility that took him not just from vocals to accordion, but from vocals to guitar to keyboards to accordion. A pretty obvious and important oversight. His audience participation was a little contrived, but as a performer fairly new to the scene, this was forgivable, and more than made up for by his affability and humor.
And how does one ignore the length of the primary set? Jennings must have performed at least 25 tunes, an oddity in the world of 5-6 songs plus monologue, plus 5-6 more to end the performance. In that world, which seems to be the norm, a bonified concert is something to rejoice over. There is little to say about the song choices, since nearly every song is liquid poetry. Certainly I was unhappy about some omissions, but when your top-quality selections go as deep as your total songbook, something’s gonna give.
I was also a little disappointed at the lack of criticism of the incompetent soundmen, who felt it necessary to impose a Drum and Bass type balance on the acoustics. When my date asked me if I was the type that could ignore such offenses and just enjoy the concert, I had no choice (except dishonesty) but to let her know that I could not; it was just too great an offense to the intent of the music. In the end, it turned out I was able to ignore it, but I do love to imagine how a decent balance could have enhanced the experience.
All in all, great concert Zach and Mason. I was thrilled to share your music with my lady-friend (she’s not my special lady!), and I was disappointed to find my local indie record store was lacking any Zack Gill albums the day after the concert. Perhaps the local chain music store? Ack!
Thanks to everyone who left comments on my quick concert review. I appreciate the clarifications and extra detail that I left out in order to keep this review concise and appealing to as broad of an audience as possible. I apologize to any Jennings or Gill fans for leaving out any important details that you feel should have been included in this brief write up. I am a relatively new fan of Gill and Jennings, but after this concert, I am thoroughly sold on these guys- they are amazing! There is an obvious need for more press coverage of these incredibly talented musicians. I am currently working on more exclusive features with both Gill and Jennings which I hope to have live on Hidden Track very soon, so stay tuned! Thanks again everyone!