Despite all of the media controversies and major label involvement, when it’s all stripped away the fact remains that Howie Day is a solid singer-songwriter. He’s not going to reinvent the wheel, but really who in that genre of 90’s college-radio fueled, guy-with-a-guitar music really is? What does set Day about from his contemporaries, however, is his willingness and deftness with instrumental experimentation. His use of loop pedals, effects and harmonies both demonstrate his ear for sonic structures and his hand at realizing them. He can take a fairly standard four chord pop song and transform it into a piece with multiple movements, robust musical backdrops and a chorus of voices. The term “one man band” comes to mind, but his live incarnation is really so much more than that. It’s unpredictable, engaging and cathartic, so after a two-hour set it feels like you’ve traveled through so much more than seventeen songs in the traditional format, because Day’s grasp of the musical veil and reveal is uncanny.
Unfortunately, over the past five years Howie Day has fallen into quite a severe career rut. Following the success of sophomore album Stop The World Now (2003) and its massive single “Collide,” it appeared that Day was on path to combine the worlds of Radiohead and Dave Matthews Band in a blend that could in fact carve out his own niche in the John Mayer-Jason Mraz-Jack Johnson guy rock scene. His rise was welcome and offered an alternative to the surfer chic that seemed ubiquitous on radio, and then Day virtually disappeared for five years. In 2009, he released Sound The Alarm— an uninspired, fairly vapid collection of songs that lacked the emotional depth he was known for. Few of the songs had teeth, and the ones that did were drowned in ultra-shiny, clinically sterile production. For someone to go from the rawness and muscle of “Secret” from his superlative debut Australia (2001) to the unoriginal pop template of “Be There” was unsettling, and the recent release of the companion Ceasefire EP did nothing to mitigate that disappointment.
The good news is that Howie Day is still a dynamic and gripping performer. His show at San Francisco’s Cafe du Nord this September was a solo venture, which may sound like a letdown, but he built his career on the strength of this format. Opening for “Sorry So Sorry,” a key track from Australia, it was a glimpse into the Howie Day of 2002, full of promise and conviction. And if the wild jeering from the crowd was any indication, Day was back to his good old self. “Brace Yourself” followed with its usual muscle and reach into Day’s upper register. And the ten minute epic version of “Ghost” with the trademark “Beams of Light” outro was inspired, visceral and electrifying.
Thankfully, much of Day’s recent material benefited from being stripped down to vocals and guitar. “Weightless” and “No Longer What You Require” were particularly enjoyable in their new-found intimacy. But, in reality Day couldn’t go too far with the songs from Sound The Alarm and Ceasefire, because if you strip back a song to its foundation, but the foundation is build on unsteady ground, you run the risk of considerable liquefaction in the bare bones approach. And many of these songs suffered under the weight of poor craftsmanship, like “Be There” and “So Much Love.” It’s understandable that he had to include some of the recent work, but hopefully with more albums to come, the Sound The Alarm era will be quickly forgotten.
While it was sad to not see any new material, Howie Day’s reinterpretations of work from the span of his career was overall fairly successful. His keen ear for melody and adroit hand at musical architecture is laudable, and when executed in the live context it’s particularly affecting. Songs like “Madrigals,” “She Says,” “Ghost” and “Collide” are all incredibly durable and spectacular examples of well-executed pop music. There’s a reason why Day catapulted to such nationwide success, and his adherence to the majority of his strong material on this solo tour indicates that he’s digging back into his roots. With a careful editing eye and a reinvestment in the tools that made him so innovative as a male singer-songwriter, Howie Day can really go far again, despite the many blunders of recent memory.
Setlist:
Sorry So Sorry
Brace Yourself
Sound The Alarm
Ghost
Perfect Time of Day
Weightless
So Much Love
Numbness For Sound
After You
No Longer What You Require
Be There
Disco
Sunday Morning Song
Collide
Bunnies
Encore:
She Says
Madrigals
