How often do you see a band in concert that's got one big, obvious hit that, surely, will be the grand finale to the show? But then you worry, well, maybe they're sick of playing it. OMG, maybe they're not going to play it!
The Mavericks put on a stellar performance--free of charge, no less--at the Leinie Lodge at the Minnesota State Fair, the second of a two-night stand, on Thursday, August 30. And, wow, did they ever milk the suspense for everything it was worth before closing with a totally rousing version of "All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down" that left the audience too sated, too exhausted to demand yet another encore.
It was non-stop rockabilly and western swing with a Tex-Mex flavor from 8:30 to 10:20 p.m. The Mavs are a tight 9-piece band with stellar musicians and musicianship at nearly every position. The 1st "break" came at about 10 minutes before 10. Malo came out to start the 1st encore with a couple of solo acoustic ballads. The band then returned to play the standard "Guantanamera," another slow cooker, while the crowd palpably yearned (I guess I should say, demanded) to rock some more.
After a second, more half-hearted attempt at "good night," the band quickly launched into the Isley Brothers/Beatles classic "Twist and Shout." This sounded for all the world like a closer, especially as the Mavs repeated the chorus and coaxed the audience into singing along. And it would have been a perfectly fine closer under normal circumstances.
But these were not normal circumstances so that, finally, when Malo and lead guitarist Eddie Perez lit into that twangy, tell-tale guitar riff, the crowd pretty much went nuts. "I can't sleep a wink anymore," Malo sang, and the few who hadn't recognized the guitar riff went even more nuts.
My wife and I set out to see and hear as much music as possible this summer and the highlights include Rufus Wainwright, Alison Krauss, Los Lobos, the Blood on the Tracks Band Live, the Auto Body Experience and many more. "All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down" was the simply the single greatest performance of the year so far.
If you're going to be playing rockabilly, of course, you better have a solid rhythm section, and bassist Robert Reynolds and drummer Paul Deakin were more than up to the challenge. The top soloists were the horns--a trumpet and a sax--whose names I don't remember and cannot find anywhere on the internet. Keyboardist Jerry Dale McFadden was terrific, especially on the piano, but he also added color to the mix by coaxing a variety of other sounds, including a Hammond B-3 sound, out of his digital keys. Perez, who is new to the Mavs for this tour, and accordionist Michael Guerra, were better on some tunes than on others but Perez, in particular, more than earned his keep by absolutely nailing that crucial solo on "All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down."
But the star of the ensemble is Malo. I don't know about the oft-made comparison to Roy Orbison but I know that Malo projects easily above the Mavs' 9 instruments. And what you hear, so clearly, is a terrific and expressive tenor.
All in all, it was already a night of high-spirited music when the Mavericks totally knocked their biggest hit right out of the park. It was a nearly perfect performance by a band that could hardly have been expected to be this good.
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