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Glen Phillips |
Luther's Blues, Madison, WI |
March 29 , 2005 |
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| A new CD, a new band and the start of a month long tour…this day was much anticipated for fans of Glen Phillips. Winter Pays For Summer, Phillips newest CD, was delayed an inordinate amount of time due to Phillips signing with Lost Highway in late 2004. Not that Phillips has been hiding out waiting for the CD to drop. He has been touring as a solo artist on and off for the past few years with a short “reunion” tour with his former Toad band mates in early 2003.
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Taking the stage with his new band, the first noticeable difference was the addition of keys to the traditional rock band formation. As Way Cool Music learned during our interview with Phillips, he and Jonathon Kingham (singer/songwriter from Seattle) had been looking for an opportunity to work together. As they were talking about this upcoming tour, Phillips remembered that Kingham was a pretty damn good keyboardist, as well as singer/songwriter. Kingham liked the idea of touring with Phillips as part of his band. Kingham invited two other friends from Seattle to round out the band – Myles Corbin (bassist) and Sean Bendickson (drummer). I can’t imagine how anxious the band was to make it’s mark rather than be defined as just another version of Toad The Wet Sprocket. The new keyboard arrangements and Kingham’s and Bendickson’s backing vocals were welcome additions to the overall sound of songs that the audience has been enjoying as solo acoustic tunes during the past few years. |
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Having only a short time to rehearse prior to this first show, there were a few hiccups such as Bendickson starting to play the intro to ‘True’ instead of ‘Easier’ after Phillips mentioned they were about to play one of his (very few) love songs. Phillips turned to the drummer to clear up the matter with a bit of chuckle. Otherwise, the band did a wonderful job bringing these songs to life. The set list was a well-balanced mixture of brand new songs (Finally Fading, Released and Cleareyed), Toad standards (Walk On The Ocean & Something’s Always Wrong) and some pretty obscure Toad songs (High On A Riverbed, Fly From Heaven & Throw It All Away).
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Mid – set, Phillips gave the band a short break to engage the audience with a few solo acoustic numbers, asking and submitting to requests (as has been common practice at his solo shows).
Except for the slight mishaps and the fact that I was standing directly in front of the PA (emitting a very loud electric guitar), the evening was a success. With great diversity in songs, obvious camaraderie between band mates and experiencing the new songs in full – bodied fashion made for a very memorable night, and a great start to the current tour. |
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To find out more information about Glen Phillips, visit his website at
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www.glenphillips.com.
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