The first night of the unusual co-headlining tour starring G. Love & Special Sauce and Keb’ Mo’ at a sold-out Meijer Gardens amphitheater boasted separate sets by the pals and invigorating collaborations.
Genre-Spanning Set: G. Love, aka Garrett Dutton, brought his Special Sauce – and Keb’ Mo’ – to Meijer Gardens on Wednesday. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
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The connection between Keb’ Mo’ and G. Love & Special Sauce is not immediately clear.
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Apart from an apparent affinity for punctuation and a bluesy sensibility, the two artists do not seem an obvious pair to share the marquee, as they did Wednesday night for a sold-out double bill at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.
Uncommon Opener: Keb’ Mo’ delivered a 75-minute set with his band. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
Keb’ Mo’ (aka Kevin Moore) is a California-born, three-time Grammy-winning blues giant drawing heavily from the traditional sounds of the Mississippi Delta. G. Love (born Garrett Dutton), meanwhile, is a Philly boy, with a party-ready catalog that tends to swing just as often into the territories of rock and alt hip hop as it does funk, soul and blues.
Though G. Love & Special Sauce have been touring for a majority of the summer, Wednesday was the first night to feature Keb’ Mo’ and his three-piece backing band as the tour’s co-headliner. And as it turns out, the sort-of-Odd-Couple routine works.
Though Keb’ Mo’ started the evening, his 17-song, 75-minute stand could scarcely qualify as an “opening act.” It was a rigorous performance, with Moore and company wringing the most out of every tune, whether he was playing it sexy (“Shave Yo’ Legs”), heartbroken (“Perpetual Blues Machine”) or downright funky (“Gimmie What You Got”).
Closing out the night, G. Love & Special Sauce offered an hour-long set capped off by a 25-minute encore, hitting a fair number of the musician’s most well-known hits (“Baby’s Got Sauce,” “Cold Beverage,” the “dirty” version of “Booty Call”) and a few cuts from his newest record “Sugar,” released this spring.
There was a fair showing of “we came here to sit and sip” fuddy-duddies and the blanket/chair drama and turf wars typical of Meijer Gardens, but the sellout crowd overall seemed to take a note from the performers’ books and played it laid-back, fun and carefree.
THE HIGHLIGHTS
The times when the two frontmen shared the stage proved among the strongest points of the experience, whether it was Dutton offering his harmonica and backing vocals for Keb’ Mo’s “Gimmie What You Got,” or Moore joining for back-to-back songs midway through G. Love & Special Sauce’s set.
Getting Funky: G. Love and band. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
The two fell easily in step with one another, their musical conversation at once private and open to the audience.
(Of course, unfortunate photo restrictions meant Local Spins photographer Anthony Norkus wasn’t allowed to shoot this portion of the show, despite the fact that fans were snapping iPhone photos of the pair left and right.)
On the topic of musical relationships, this tour brings together G. Love & Special Sauce originals Dutton, James “Jimi Jazz” Prescott (upright bass) and Jeffrey “The Houseman” Clemens. It’s hard to say if the rendering would have been nearly as magnetic without Prescott’s nimble strumming or Clemens’ acrobatic rhythm.
A one-song guest appearance by a second harmonica player — dueling harmonicas: better than it sounds — on “Cold Beverages” proved a hit with the on-its-feet-and-dancing crowd.
THE BANTER
Moore and Dutton, both seasoned performers in their own right, make for quite the charismatic frontmen.
They come across as the kind of guys you’d like to treat to a beer at the end of the night, not because they’re famous, but because they seem like they’d be chill dudes to hang with. And while pleasantries were made and there were a few nudges to the ribs (“Let’s get naked — just kidding,” Keb’ Mo, said, before launching into “The Itch.”), Moore and Dutton didn’t spend much time talking about themselves or their own backgrounds.
Mostly, the two stars of the show — who’ve known one another for nearly two decades, dating back to their time on Okeh Records — devoted their brief talk breaks to paying accolades to one another. But for all of Moore and Dutton’s kind words, nothing spoke as loudly of their mutual admiration than their musical interactions.
KEB’ MO’, G. LOVE & SPECIAL SAUCE: THE LOCAL SPINS PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Anthony Norkus
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