It proved to be The Mavericks’ final Michigan show. Country icon Dwight Yoakam headlined the late March concert at Wings Event Center. Revisit the review and photos in our year-end countdown.
‘Honky Tonk Man’: Dwight Yoakam unfurled a career-spanning set at Wings Event Center in March. (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Merry Christmas to one and all! Our countdown of the Top 10 Local Spins stories of the year hits No. 5 today, with a look back at our coverage of Dwight Yoakam’s March tour stop in Kalamazoo with The Mavericks and 49 Winchester. Sadly, Mavericks frontman Raul Malo passed away from cancer earlier this month, leaving fans at the Wings Event Center with lasting memories of the band’s rousing set. Scroll down for a photo gallery and set lists.
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As country icon Dwight Yoakam proclaimed from the stage in reprising his 1990 classic, “Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose.”
Turn things loose he did, with help from touring mates The Mavericks and 49 Winchester, combining fresh charisma and beloved craftsmanship at Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo.
The three-band show in late March was more than substantial, with each set running over an hour with reasonable intermissions, amid a venue that was not overcrowded but still robust with enthused fans garbed in cowboy hats and trucker hats.
Emerging alt-country band 49 Winchester opened the evening with something different from their tour partners, but thematically coherent. The band leaned into its Virginia Appalachians image, unfurling music with lots of moving parts and restless lyrics — complexity juxtaposed with a fun, loud and danceable milieu.
Songs such as “Long Hard Life,” with a best-of-a-bad situation attitude, were contagious and the crowd was receptive and positive.
Beloved Band: Raul Malo and The Mavericks (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
The Mavericks entered to the can-can, waving as they came on, then immediately demolished the stage with a playful, joyous experience.
Stunningly smooth and complex, the veteran Florida band incorporated trumpet, guitar, saxophone, drums and accordion into their approach, taking turns and stirring together into gorgeously intricate madness.
A Latino rockabilly combination, such a label underestimates the band’s variety and whimsical positivity in the face of the everyday. One is left reeling, wondering only: how is it possible to do that to an accordion?
The Mavericks’ closing song, “All You Ever Do is Bring Me Down,” had one particular family high in the bleachers dancing enthusiastically.
“We love The Mavericks and we like Dwight Yoakam,” said David Rodriguez of Saginaw, who brought his family to show, explaining that “All You Ever Do is Bring Me Down” has become the family’s theme song — played and danced to at family gatherings and weddings.
“I didn’t think I’d ever get to see the Grand Canyon, or the Statue of Liberty, or The Mavericks perform ‘All You Do is Bring Me Down,’ ” Rodriguez said. “It was definitely on my bucket list.”
PLAYING NEW SONGS, FAMILIAR HITS AND COVERS
Kicking off his 23-song set with “Wide Open Heart” from his latest album, “Brighter Days,” Yoakam took the stage accompanied by a drummer and three musicians in sparkly gold suit jackets.
The 68-year-old Kentucky native returned to Kalamazoo with his voice not like butter but more like buttered bread, made substantial — smooth and twangy, with his signature line-dance style shimmy.
Top-Shelf Band: Yoakam and crew in stage. (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
The set ranged from some of Yoakam’s biggest hits — “Honky Tonk Man,” “Guitars, Cadillacs” and “Fast as You” — to newer material to covers of songs by Elvis Presley, Queen and Lefty Frizzell.
The band featured a multi-instrumentalist who alternated between fiddle, pedal steel, keyboard, accordion and guitar — all with great skill and sometimes playing more than one instrument during the same song.
One could almost feel the texture of the strings in the air as Yoakam performed impressive new tracks mixed with satisfying old classics before ending with a radiant encore rendition of “Suspicious Minds.”
PHOTO GALLERY: Dwight Yoakam, The Mavericks, 49 Winchester
Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo
Photos by Derek Ketchum
SET LIST: Dwight Yoakam at Wings Event Center
Setlist.fm
SET LIST: The Mavericks at Wings Event Center
Setlist.fm
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