Dave Barnes

Lock up you women. Dave Barnes is coming to town. Actually, he came last friday, but when else will I be able to say that. That's right, Knoxville's teenage heart-throb stopped by The Bijou Friday night, and surprised me with a very good two and a half hours of songs. Well, actually, he played about an hour and a half of music, and filled the rest of the time in with his remarkably sidetracking storytelling, but it was cool; he was pretty funny. I can out up with banter, if it's funny banter.

Ben Rector opened the show with nothing more than a piano and a guitar to alternate playing. This guy was good, I mean really good, and his lyrics weren't too sappy to stand. He played a few slow typical singer-songwriter songs on the piano, but he was best on the guitar. Rector stood out to me, because he was really trying to earn his chops. He was doing everything he could to win over the audience in the thirty minutes he had, and he managed to do it. The guy is from Oklahoma and had never stepped foot in The Bijou, or Knoxville for that matter, so you can imagine the crowd, oh so hungry for their pop savior, were at first just ready to get this guy over with.

Somewhere in the middle of his set he announced that he would sing a verse in his next song completely based on a random topic the audience gave to him. At first he got stuck with education, but aiming to please instead of anger, he asked for another. So what is the best topic to sing about? Spaghetti, that's what. I mean, it wasn't "Like A Rolling Stone" but he made spaghetti rhyme with something, so I was pretty impressed. That was definitely the highlight of his act. He played a cover of Tom Petty's, not John Mayer's, "Free Fallin", but it was pretty mediocre. It was my least favorite part of Rector. The guy played about three more songs before scooting off-stage to welcome on good ole' Dave Barnes.

Dave came on to thunderous applause and immediately jumped into one of his more jammin' songs, "Chameleon". The song transferred on stage even better than it did on the album. It set the show off pretty well. I'm all for a great opening and closer. They are integral to a successful act. If I go to a Phoenix concert, I'm going to be kinda turned off if they open with "Love Like A Sunset" (Hope you know Phoenix). Anyways, he played a few more, but I can't remember exactly what they were. Most of em were form the new album, see last review, and there wasn't one that wasn't pretty good. The band left, and Dave played some of his slower cuts, specifically, "Friends" and "I Have And I Always Will", both of which started with never-ending stories, but like I said, it was cool. I just can't emphasize enough about how this guy is more ADHD than the Indigo Girls are gay.

When the band came back out, they played some of the bigger hits. They slowed "Someday Sarah" down a few notches and the whole crowd was singing to it. "Little Lies" was one of the best songs of night. He changed it around from the album's version, and you could tell that the whole group was having a lot of fun playing it. Last but not least(or last counting the encore) came the big one, the one that started it all, "Until You". Dave was really funny about the song, because unlike some artist who try to run from their mega-hit, he was completely aware of the power the song had over the audience, and gave a five minute speech about how he didn't want applause until the whole band had kicked in. So, the song started really strangely. You could hear those first guitar strums and the first few lines of the song out in the street it was so quiet. And then, like some kind of charm-induced battle cry, the audience blew up right on cue. It got really dang loud. They got done with that, and walked off stage for all of about thirty second before returning for round two.

I wish I remembered more than the last song of the show, but I don't, so assume the first two or three songs of the encore were good. So, lastly, Barnes and company unplugged and unmic'd for a strictly acoustic version of Greyhound. It wasn't as easy to hear as Brandi Carlile was, but I was in the second level of the balcony, so I guess it was me, not him. It was a bit strange of a song to end on, as it didn't really pack a punch, or impress everyone. I dono, like I said. Close strong. Dave didn't, but apart from that, he put on a really fun show. I went with my best-friends girl-friend, and we acted like a really awkward couple to mess with the really annoying couple behind us, so that was fun. It was a good night, and I won tickets to Bonnaroo's College Comedy Tour tonight for free! Yay! So yea, that will be fun. If Dave's in town, he's worth dishing out a couple of bucks and taking a girl to go see. Here's a little bit of both Ben and Dave