Sunday’s concert amid gorgeous weather at Meijer Gardens unfurled as a two-album night, with Jakob Dylan and crew performing two iconic LPs straight through. And we had an artist capture the images.
The Album Just As You Heard It the First Time: Jakob Dylan & The Wallflowers on stage Sunday. (Artwork by Milt Klingensmith)
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Wallflowers wouldn’t permit professional photography at Sunday’s concert. So, Local Spins arranged with artist Milt Klingensmith — formerly with The Grand Rapids Press — to create portrait sketches of the performers at Meijer Gardens. More about Klingensmith here.
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In an all-ages show where “nobody is missing,” Jakob Dylan and The Wallflowers proved to fans at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park on Sunday night that you can sing two albums sequentially and call it good.
Very good, as it turns out.
Singular, unexpected and warmly vintage all come to mind as words to describe this uniquely-crafted show, part of The Wallflowers “Bringing Down the Horse” 30th anniversary tour.
Jakob Dylan (Artwork by Milt Klingensmith)
“It seems a little awkward to start with ‘One Headlight,’” right?” Dylan said. And yeah, it did seem questionable to start the show with arguably the band’s most recognizable hit. Isn’t the whole point of a concert to build momentum and keep the crowd waiting for some pinnacle moment at the very end?
But Dylan noted that, “This is the one where we’re playing all the songs on the record, just as you heard them the first time” — and so the band performed the songs sequentially, following the opener with “6th Avenue Heartache,” “Bleeders” and “Three Marlenas.”
And like Dylan said, everybody was there — from five year-olds to 75-year-olds — and the mellow vibes, pleasant breezes and experimental nature of the construct worked as the band played on, song after song, from an album that came out three decades ago.
When the band broke onto “The Difference,” audience members clapped and swayed to the tune, which spent time at No. 3 on the charts in 1997 and was nominated for a Grammy. The hit critiques those who never change or evolve, a message that seemed as fresh and sharp as ever.
One benefit of listening to every single song from an album played live is you get to question why certain songs never made it to radio play. The rambunctious “God Don’t Make Lonely Girls” rollicked along, begging the question of why it was never a hit, as did “I Wish I Felt Nothing,” with its bereft, pining tones.
The Artist at Work: Klingensmith (Photo/Local Spins)
And then, just as the crowd was settling in nicely with all of the goods offered on “Bringing Down the Horse,” Part 2 of the show began with no preamble. Suddenly, The Wallflowers were playing straight through an album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, 1982’s “Long After Dark.”
To play through his late friend’s album was, for Dylan, a “dream come true,” but he and his bandmates had to make it snappy.
Referring to the venue’s 9:45 p.m. cut-off for music, Dylan said, “We gotta move,” and indeed the show seemed to flow at a good clip. The fascinating thing about choosing this particular album of Tom Petty’s is that there were only two hits on it, “You Got Lucky,” with its unusual-for-Petty heavier use of synthesizer, and “Change of Heart,” which only peaked at No. 21 on the charts.
But the album does feature Dylan’s “absolute favorite” Petty song, “Straight Into Darkness.” Buoyant, invigorating and bold as rendered by this band, the tune was never a hit for The Heartbreakers, which makes no sense now, even if it did in 1982.
By the time the band played “A Wasted Life,” the last song on the Petty album, about half the concertgoers had left, perhaps feeling cheated that they came to hear The Wallflowers, not a Tom Petty tribute. But what a tribute it was: The Wallflowers’ passion for the music was evident in every chord progression, harmony and musical flourish. There was love and reverence in it all, and that was more than enough to satisfy those who remained.
Opener Early James brought a slice of Alabama to Michigan with his folk- and blues-infused alt-country stylings.
Folk- and Blues-Infused Set: Early James (Artwork by Milt Klingensmith)
“There’s a lot of y’all,” he said with a twang to make other twangs shrink in comparison. Along with upright bass player Bradley James “thumping along” with James, the singer captured the audience’s hearts with his super dry sense of humor and storytelling. The song “Damn Tornado,” for example, was about an ex-girlfriend who was miffed he hadn’t written a song about her. She went to Mexico and he stayed home and wrote a song about wishing he was with her instead of hunkering down in the storm. They broke up anyway, but perhaps she escaped being the subject of the “love song,” “Straight Jacket for Two.”
Either way, James’s set definitely left the crowd wanting more, always a good thing.
The Wallflowers bring their tour to Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor on Tuesday (June 9). Some tickets remain, available here. Next Up at Meijer Gardens: Sierra Ferrell plays the amphitheater tonight (June 8). The concert is sold out.
SKETCHES BY MILT KLINGENSMITH
