Live Review and Photos by Danielle Boise
If you arrived early on Friday July 26 to Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Alpharetta for the Last Summer on Earth Tour 2013 with Barenaked Ladies, Ben Folds Five, Guster and Boothby Graffoe, then you were in for a surprise and delight. As the foremost Barenaked Ladies cover band, otherwise known as Barenaked Ladies themselves, took to the Eco-Village tent and performed an acoustic set for thrilled and bewildered fans as they joked and laughed with the early concert-goers as they poured into the venue.
Boothby Graffoe took the main stage in a jovial manner, being part comedian, part folk-esqe singer and entertained the crowd with a bevy of songs that in-cited laughter and commodore. For more information on Boothby Graffoe, visit Boothby Graffoe’s Website.
“We love you guys.” – Ryan Miller
Guster took the stage next with delight and glee as they performed songs like “Do You Love Me?,” “Ramona,” “Satellite,” “Barrel of a Gun” and ended on “This Could All Be Yours Someday.” It’s always gratifying to watch Guster perform with such love for the audience and in such a laid back manner, it’s hard not to leave one of their shows and not feel utterly relaxed. For more information on Guster, visit www.guster.com.
It was a pleasure to see the alt-rockers, Ben Folds Five back together perform both new and older material with angst-ridden lyrics meshed together with a mixture of upbeat tempos and beautiful piano melodies as they started their set off with “Michael Praytor, Five Years Later” then continued on with “Philosophy,” “Alice Childress,” “Erase Me,” “Sky High,” “Brick,” “Draw A Crowd,” “Landed,” “Song for the Dumped,” “Army,” “One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces” and ended on “Rock This Bitch” with Robert Sledge’s son dancing and doing karate kicks to the side of the stage. For more information on Ben Folds Five, visit www.benfoldsfive.com.
In between Ben Folds Five leaving the main stage and Barenaked Ladies taking the stage, with a storyteller’s vibe Guster performed an acoustic set at the Eco-Village tent out front by the gate doors. Fans were able to get within touching distance as Guster belted out more songs to delighted on-lookers.
The corky Canadian rockers, Barenaked Ladies came onto the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre stage full of enigmatic energy and smiles as they took the arena and made it their own for their 14 song set. Barenaked Ladies rambunctiously were out in fun and support of their 11th studio album, Grinning Streak, which came out June 4th off of Vanguard Records.
They kicked off their set with a couple of new songs off Grinning Streak, “Limits” and “Did I Say That Out Loud?” before going into classics like “Pinch Me,” “Gonna Walk,” “If I Had $1,000,000,” “Barenaked Rap” (which was a mash-up of “Thrift Store,” “Trouble,” “Scream & Shout,” “Get Lucky,” “Titanium” and “Blinded by the Light), “Old Apartment,” “Odds Are” and “Be My Yoko Ono.”
Before jumping right into the “Big Bang Theory Theme” Robertson brought up the Steven Hawkin Comic Con video that was released earlier in the week, where Hawkin “sings” the opening of to the CBS hit show of the same name, which brought joy and laughter from the crowd at seeing the video light up on the big screen.
Barenaked Ladies wrapped up their regular set with their smash hit, “One Week” and ended on “Limits” before they returned to the stage for a two song encore, with “Alcohol” and ending on a the Violent Femmes’ cover “Blister in the Sun.”
After 25 years of playing together, Barenaked Ladies are still making music together that is light-hearted, fun and has a bit of magic that reaches out to the audience and transports them to this happy, relaxed place. They play together as one cohesive unit that knows each other as if they were truly one person divided in four.
If you get a chance, go out and enjoy the Last Summer on Earth Tour 2013 with Barenaked Ladies, Ben Folds Five, Guster and Boothby Graffoe. The tour runs through September 14, ending in Edmonton. It makes for a relaxing evening that will bring you back to your youth with music that makes you happy to just be there by putting a smile on your face. For more information on The Last Summer on Earth Tour 2013 and Barenaked Ladies, visit www.barenakedladies.com.
Full Photo Gallery of Boothby Graffoe
Full Photo Gallery of Guster
Full Photo Gallery of Ben Folds Five
Full Photo Gallery of Barenaked Ladies
