Concert Review: Rick Huckaby at Dan McGuinness Pub – Nashville, TN – November 16, 2011
12 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on Concert Review: Rick Huckaby at Dan McGuinness Pub – Nashville, TN – November 16, 2011
Music fans everywhere will know this – when you really love to watch a band play, there’s something incredibly fun about introducing new people to the music and watching them become fans too. Last night, November 16, at Dan McGuinness Pub in Nashville, Rick Huckaby and his band got to impress one of my friends for the first time. Experiencing a show through the eyes of the uninitiated confirmed once again that, yes, this band really is that good!
Energetic opener ‘Broken Promiseland’ started the well over 90 minutes long set off right, kick-drum mishaps notwithstanding, and led the way for other up-tempo songs to get people moving. In the just-short-of-outdoors setting, we needed to dance to keep warm and a soundtrack including ‘Nothing but a Thing,’ ‘Out from Under You,’ ‘My Bad’ and especially ‘Can’t Miss Kid’ gave us plenty of reason to. The apologies-in-advance before ‘Lies Little Lies’ were unnecessary. Clearly, not having played this song in a long while does not in the least bit change how good it sounds.
Dan McGuinness is a perfect venue for an evening like this. It’s the kind of very relaxed place where they are pretty much literally ducktaping things together…while the band is playing. Five songs in, my friend was hooked, drawn in by Rick’s passion for his songs (if you’ve seen him play ‘Hittin’ My Stride,’ you know what she means). Midway through, she remarked “that drummer is great!” Jack Gavin always impresses me too and invites comparison with drummers like Lars Ulrich. (Yes, Jack’s really that good.) The band is completed by bassist Dave Fowler and guitarist Todd Woolsey, the latter often graciously allowed center-stage to dazzle us. It’s great watching people in conversation stop mid-sentence to watch Woolsey rock out nearing the end of a song.
During the set, my friend’s comments included ‘I love this song!’ halfway through ‘Hittin’ My Stride,’ and during ‘Tell Me Again’ it went “this is great; it’s sappy” (oh dear) but eventually ‘Friendly Advice’ got itself singled out as her favorite from the evening! Two covers, ‘Beast of Burden’ and an extremely rocking version of ‘Hot Legs’, would have closed out the show, were it not for the vocal audience demanding just one more tune. And so ‘Call Me Huck’ completed yet another impressive performance.
A stage manager for one of the biggest rock bands once told me the measure of a band is how much they enjoy playing music just for the sake of it. It seems like it should apply to every artist but he also told me it was a test his paymasters failed (hence everyone remaining anonymous). Huckaby and his gang? They pass with flying colors. Every time. For this band, this is about the love of playing, and the love of watching the audience love the band for their love of playing. Can’t do better than that!
Those in or near Nashville this Saturday, Nov 19, stop by Joe’s Place (2227 Bandywood Drive) for an acoustic performance starting at 9.30pm.
Liv Carter
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
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