No surprises here, just harmless pop-rock
If you think that Hootie and the Blowfish is a middle-of-the-road bar band that became the flukiest rock stars of the ’90s, it was best if you stayed away from their rescheduled “Tuesday in the Park” gig Sunday night. Because if you had shown up to heckle, thousands of the Hootie faithful would have seriously cracked your rear view.
The Artpark crowd was thick and rambunctious, absolutely packing a venue that’s larger, more elaborate and way more naturally gorgeous (no pun intended, I guess) than that other big-time free concert series, Thursday at the Square.
As the band — guitarist Mark Bryan, bassist Dean Felber and drummer Jim Sonefeld — filtered on stage, lead singer Darius Rucker stayed in the wings, belting out an updated version of Ezekiel 25:17, of “Pulp Fiction”/Samuel L. Jackson fame (i.e. “The path of the righteous band is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.”).
From the beginning, it was clear that Hootie and the Blowfish is about having fun. And while the band is an easy target for any critic that needs somebody to beat up on, it would be remiss to say that it didn’t bring the goods. Every tune, from the smash hit “Time” to all the others that sounded just like it, was awash in big, simple, totally harmless pop-rock hooks — precisely what the crowd had come in droves to hear.
That’s not to say that the band is completely average. If its songs are all fluff, then Rucker’s voice is the peanut butter. Its undeniable richness has always been the group’s lone distinguishable feature, and clearly, that staph infection in Rucker’s knee (which forced Hootie’s July 3 show to be postponed) has had no effect on his pipes. You could feel them resonating in your chest all evening long.
That being said, Hootie and the Blowfish continued their career- long streak of being unsurprising (with the exception of a cover of Cheap Trick’s “Surrender,” which was straight-up awesome). Its connect-the-dots blend of rock, pop and country was never awful and never remarkable, which I guess is the definition of “made for the masses.”
Given their penchant for the unprovocative, you have to wonder why the band chose “Blowfish” as part of its name. It’s a fish that could prove deadly when consumed. Hootie and the Haddock would be more appropriate — utterly bland, ever- so-slightly Southern fried and easily digestible.
But at the end of the day, it’s tough to be too hard on Hootie. After all, these same four guys have been playing together for 22 years, and they haven’t listened to one scathing review for all that time. Don’t expect Timbaland to be producing their records anytime soon.
Nashville singer/songwriter Patrick Davis kicked off the night. For all his Music City posturing — in a black shirt and jeans, he claimed that the Lewiston side of the river is “nicer, ’cause we’re in America” — his folk strumming and soulful tenor was more Tracy Chapman than Trace Adkins.
Appeared in the August 27, 2007, edition of The Buffalo News.