A newcomer to Jackson Browne wouldn’t have known what they were walking into on the way down the hill at the Botanic gardens of King’s Park, but there is no chance they’d have gone away disappointed. He gave a polished performance, complete with obligatory encore, and the crowd were well behaved, perhaps this was because they were of the slightly older variety. In fact, the biggest complaint of the night was the mosquitoes.

He played several of the new tracks from his new album Time the Conqueror and went through many favourites for the crowd, obvious by the way the place lit up from time to time when they recognised the first few bars resonating from the amplifier stacks.

The concert went for 90 minutes, and was well priced. Special guest Toni Childs supported Browne and did the event justice, ending with her perennial favourite I’ve got to go now. After a short break, Browne appeared on the stage with his band who had been playing as accompaniment to Childs, not a fact initially obvious.

It was a great concert, well put together and pleasing to listen to. The setup was first rate, the sound levels were fine tuned and a huge screen showing live footage of the musicians on stage made the event seem even more intimate. What was hard to believe was how long Browne has been going, based on his appearance. He looked very sprightly for his years; the silver beard -perhaps a reference to Old Father Time on the cover of Time the Conqueror was MIA for the performance. It is a pleasant dichotomy, considering the album’s title and what it means -mortality and the unstoppable march of time. Jackson spoke about this on one occasion, and about how it is one of the few things no one can influence or ignore.

The stage was built over part of the pioneer woman’s memorial pond and acted as an interesting feature of the event. Occasionally some oblivious ducks on its surface floated into view. Browne even referred to them at one point, musing how he had never done a performance complete with marine life!

About 1500 people turned out, and toward the end of the night some braver souls spontaneously jumped into the knee high water to get closer to Browne and revel like children in the exuberance of the evening, splashing one another and dancing together for the closing songs. An altogether fitting response to Time the Conqueror.

Promo photo by FrankOkenfels