With an engaging jam-band vibe, the 62-year-old piano whiz and his Noisemakers band made Thursday’s sweltering Grand Rapids stop on their national tour a memorable one.
The Joy of Not Knowing Where You’re Going: Bruce Hornsby and his band Thursday at Meijer Gardens. (Photo/Schyler Perkins)
When Bruce Hornsby starts playing his instruments, there’s no telling where he’ll end up.
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“They never know where I’m going, but they’re really good at following me after all these years,” Hornsby joked with the crowd after introducing his bandmates. “They don’t know where I’m going because I don’t know.”
The one-time “unofficial” Grateful Dead member certainly called on his improvisational and jam-hued inclinations in his return Thursday to Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park with his Noisemakers ensemble.
Time to Dance: The sold-out Hornsby show drew fans young and old. (Photo/Schyler Perkins)
Concertgoers again defied the nearly 90-degree weather to settle into the amphitheater early and welcome opening folk group The Wood Brothers, who in turn charmed the crowd with fervent string-playing and sweet harmonies.
After that warm-up set and a sleepy intermission, the packed crowd settled in for a nearly two-hour set filled with wild piano and fiddle intros/solos and impressive, genre-melding multi-instrumentation.
Switching between a mountain dulcimer, piano and eventually an accordion, frontman Hornsby led the Noisemakers through newer songs from their 2016 album, “Rehab Reunion,” and a variety of older songs from Hornsby’s decade-spanning career including “Rainbow’s Cadillac,” “Look Out Any Window” and “Gulf of Mexico Fishing Boat Blues.”
Hornsby and the Noisemakers didn’t limit their worldly style of music to just their own material either.
“Do we have some Tupac Shakur lovers in the house?” the 62-year-old Hornsby asked the crowd at one point, before beginning a mostly instrumental rendition of Tupac’s iconic “That’s Just The Way It Is.”
The crowd, of course, loved it.
PHOTO GALLERY: Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers, The Wood Brothers
Photos by Schyler Perkins
