The highly acclaimed rock and Americana artist brought his trio and a powerful set of music to historic Royce Auditorium for the final Acoustic Café show of the season. (Review, photo gallery)
Masterful Musical Storyteller: Alejandro Escovedo on stage at St. Cecilia Music Center (Photo/Anna Sink)
When Alejandro Escovedo strapped on his electric guitar midway through his Grand Rapids concert on Thursday, he cautioned the normally staid St. Cecilia Music Center audience that things might get loud.
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The Trio: Escovedo with his bandmates inside Royce Auditorium. (Photo/Anna Sink)
It might sound like “someone left the garage door open,” he joked, then dialed up the volume and the feedback for an absolutely brilliant rendering of “Chelsea Hotel ’78” from 2008’s “Real Animal” – a song based on the Texas singer-songwriter’s punk band experience in New York during his formative years.
While not overly boisterous, his trio’s powerful take on the tune had one elderly couple scurrying for the exits but left most of the rest of the two-thirds-full house in the elegant Royce Auditorium transfixed. And when the lengthy tune wrapped up, they cheered and hooted loudly, ecstatic over what they had just witnessed.
Alejandro and his bandmates – cellist Brian Standefer and keyboard player Sean Giddings – immediately followed that with something quite different: a tender acoustic guitar rendition of 2010’s “Down in the Bowery,” a song written for his musician son.
DIVERSE OFFERINGS FROM THE BREADTH OF ESCOVEDO’S CAREER
The evening, which began with an impressive indie folk set by Canadian pianist and songstress Lucette, played out much like Escovedo’s four-decade career – diverse and panoramic offerings spanning rock, Americana, folk and Tex-Mex propelled by the singer-guitarist’s extraordinary musical vision and wide-ranging influences.
At his core, Escovedo is a masterful musical storyteller, an artist who reflects his life – and the world’s travails and triumphs – in his words and his songs.
‘Sounds So Gorgeous’: Escovedo told tales and complimented the venue. (Photo/Anna Sink)
He’s a true troubadour who enhances his performances with colorful anecdotes about the inspiration for his music and his writing, from tales about his father and his family to being asked by Bruce Springsteen to perform one of his songs, “Always a Friend,” with the E Street Band.
“Those three or four minutes,” he said, “changed my life.”
Escovedo’s music likely has done the same for plenty of other musicians and fans, and his performance Thursday as part of the final “Acoustic Café Folk Series” concert of the season encompassed the passion, poignancy and political verve of his extensive catalog, of songs new and old, most cloaked in melancholy beauty: “Five Hearts Breaking” (which kicked off the night), “Bottom of the World,” “Arizona,” “Rosalie,” “San Antonio Rain” and more.
The engaging artist who now lives in Dallas and just completed recording his new album with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck (“Burn Something Beautiful” is slated for release in September) also praised St. Cecilia’s Royce Auditorium amid entertaining stories from his illustrious career.
“It’s a beautiful room,” he said. “It sounds so gorgeous.”
So did Escovedo and his band, who wrapped up the evening with an encore that featured a Spanish-language song in tribute to Cinco de Mayo and an Escovedo tradition: a moving, microphone-free rendition of Ian Hunter’s “I Wish I Was Your Mother.”
For many of those on board Thursday, it was a Cinco de Mayo they themselves will tell stories about.
PHOTO GALLERY: Alejandro Escovedo photos by Anna Sink
