Pam and I decided to roll the dice. Two years ago we went to the Hollywood Bowl to see Zac Brown perform. We were enthralled. We loved the show and marveled at Zac’s ability to perform live. One of the highlights of the show for us that year was his cover of Bohemian Rhapsody. We did not see that one coming, but it was amazing.
Last year we went to see him at the Forum. We thought we would get a repeat performance of the show we loved the prior year. Instead we got an earful of noise, Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters inspired noise. Dark, deafening, distorted guitar sounds that drowned out all the melodic harmonies that make Zac, well, Zac. After that show, we were not sure we ever wanted to see them perform again.
We discussed seeing him for a third time more than once. Each time we were undecided. Then Pam said she wanted to see him at the Bowl this year. I said, “Sure.” But I was not totally convinced. We bought seats, and as the concert approached, we listened, with hope, to Zac’s new songs. We wanted a return of Zac. We definitely got what we hoped for.
The first act was Caroline Jones, an up and coming country artist with poppy and folky blends to her sound. As her soft sounds wafted over us, I relaxed and enjoyed her performance. She was a good opening act, and I think I will spend some time listening to her music in the future.
The second opening act was Darrell Scott, a singer songwriter I had never heard of. Darrell Scott is more well known as a studio musician and song writer than a singer. He has written songs that have been covered by Travis Tritt (It’s A Great Day to Be Alive), The Dixie Chicks (Long Time Gone), Faith Hill (We’ve Got Nothing But Love To Prove) to name a few. His music tends to skew towards roots music, blues and Americana, genres I really enjoy. To be honest, though, I just wasn’t connecting with him as he performed. That all changed in a heartbeat. After performing several songs solo, he brought some “friends” out to add some instruments to his songs. Frankly, I was not paying attention, until Pam said, “I think that is Zac Brown’s fiddle player (Jimmy De Martini) on the stage.” I took a closer look. She was right. Just as I saw that, Darrell had a few more “friends” join him on stage. The “friends” included Zac and most of his band. All of a sudden, Darrell Scott was amazing. I thought it was pretty cool of Zac to be singing background for Darrell. I was now pretty sure the Zac Pam and I love was back.
Shortly thereafter, Zac took the stage for real. From the opening notes, the show was just about perfect. It was Zac and his band at their best. My only complaint was that he didn’t play Toes, arguably one of my favorite songs. Pam and I had studied the set list from the night before and sort of expected it. It never happened. Instead, we got treated to another perfect cover of Bohemian Rhapsody, which we didn’t expect. We also got an energetic shredding of the Allman Brothers’ Whipping Post, as Zac and the band paid homage to the passing of Gregg Allman earlier this year.
Zac performs so well live, and he is a joy to listen to. He wowed us with his guitar playing, as he and the band really cranked up the tempo on a couple of numbers. We felt so good after the show we were singing Zac songs and yacking about the concert all the way back to our car, which was parked 20 minutes away from the Bowl. The next day we flew to Wailea for some much needed vacay. That night we sat on our balcony, drinking Mai Tais as we enjoyed our ocean view and watched our first sunset of the week. As we did so, we were still feeling good about the show. So good that Pam played a steady stream of Zac YouTube concert videos on her iPad. These is no doubt that we will see him a fourth time.