The Zoo on Sunday night was packed full and sweaty, with the front row populated with girls looking like they were going to faint the second Bob Evans made his appearance on stage, or at least scream very loudly, ‘We love you Bob!!!!’ at any moment.
Local musician Andrew Morris was the perfect warm up for the evening- his songs vary from being straight out alt-country rock to beautiful acoustic ballads. He first played solo before bringing on his band The Dry Bones and they played a variety of tunes from his album Valleys. Morris’ tunes vary from beautiful acoustic ballads to foot stomping alt-country rock; highlights were the upbeat You Give Me Reason and Beaten Blown, which I think could easily be a new “I’ve just got home, its 2 o’clock in the morning, I’ve had too much to drink, and why doesn’t he/she love me??” anthem. Andrew finishes with his latest single Let It Roll which is the catchiest bit of country/blues rock I’ve heard in a while, and I’m sure will be getting huge airplay in the future.
I’m of the opinion that acoustic singer-songwriters are the new rock stars, and Bob Evans further reinforces my belief. The band starts playing and Bob appears onstage dressed in a snappy vest with wine bottle in hand in true rock star fashion. In keeping with the rock show vibe of the night at one stage in the beginning of the evening there’s a couple of people that feel the need to start a bit of a mini mosh pit, and later on in the gig we are even treated to a light show (well it was Christmas lights on a guitar but I think it was a nice touch) From then on it’s a mixture of the many brilliant catchy acoustic pop songs from Evan’s two albums Suburban Kid and Suburban Songbook. Evans has the crowd in the palm of his hand throughout the show; even the most cynical person would find it hard to resist turning to the person next to them and smiling, and maybe even walking around the room hugging complete strangers, while listening to him play songs like, Friend and Don’t Walk Alone. If it hadn’t been so hot in the Zoo I’m sure the crowd would have broken out into a giant group hug during Friend in particular.
It’s when he takes to the stage solo to perform that Bob Evans’ talent as a performer truly shines through; when he was playing the haunting Darlin Won’t You Come and singing lines like, Darlin won’t you come run away with me/It’s hard finding hope when you’re lost at sea/And I want to belong but I’d rather be free, the crowd was completely silent, caught up in the magic of the moment.
During the supposed last song of the evening, Don’t You Think It’s Time the crowd took the opportunity to sing along to his most well known tune but the night was far from over. After the traditional ‘pretend ending’ (that’s what I like to call it) of the show Evans and his band return to the stage to play an amazing encore which went on for over half an hour and included him playing a few songs at the request of audience members. When you’ve got a couple of albums worth of songs and someone requests an obscure one for you to play I’m sure it can sometimes be a little tricky to remember the words, so Evans remedied that problem by getting an enthusiastic fan onstage to accompany him through one song where the lyrics had slipped his mind. The gig ended with the amazing hidden track from Suburban Songbook, and after it all it I was definitely left with no doubt that Bob Evans is one of the best singer-songwriters around.
