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Home » John Paul Jones

Roseland Theatre, Portland

28 July 2004 2,210 views No Comment

Set List: (Not Confirmed)
Trouble* / Sake Of The World* / Caleb Meyer / Windmills* / Smoothie Song# / Son Of Sam / La Lune* / Somewhere Out There* / All I Want^ / Anthony# / Going To California / Don’t Need Anything^ / Nowhere# / Ode To A Butterfly# / Dam Would Break^ / Reasons Why# / Taxman / This Side# / Comes A Time* / The Fox# (including part of Subterranean Homesick Blues) / ENCORE 1: Gallows Pole / ENCORE 2: You Don’t Have To Move That Mountain#
KEY: * Mutual Admiration Society song # Nickel Creek song ^ Toad The Wet Sprocket/Glen Phillips song
Thanks Scott Swanson

Reports:
This from Scott Swanson 
Just got back from seeing John Paul Jones with “Mutual Admiration Society” at Portland’s Roseland Theater on July 28th. M.A.S. is a collaboration between singer Glen Phillips (from ’90s college rock band Toad The Wet Sprocket) and the modern bluegrass trio Nickel Creek. They invited John Paul Jones to join their 2004 summer tour as a “very special guest” — I half expected JPJ to sit out the first half of the show, so I was pleasantly surprised to see him onstage from start to finish.

The theater was filled with about 500 people — half were seated in an upstairs balcony, while the other half milled about down below. It wasn’t too difficult to slip up to the front of the stage. The crowd was an eclectic mix to say the least. There were lots of young women there, whom I figured were the Nickel Creek fans. (They reminded me of what a typical Dave Matthews Band groupie might be if she were 10 years younger…and she went to private school…in the south!) Also, the show was being promoted by the local “adult contemporary” station (think: James Taylor & Bonnie Raitt), so there were quite a few baby boomer types. There were very few people dressed like they were expecting a Led Zeppelin concert!

The show itself was a mixture of songs from MAS’s new CD and Nickel Creek’s repertoire, with a few surprises thrown in. You might think that bluegrass & alternative don’t really mix….and you’d probably be right. Sometimes it worked, but sometimes it didn’t. (Although that could be due to the fact that it was only the 2nd show of the tour — there were quite a few false starts and flubs throughout the show; JPJ and drummer Pete Thomas read from sheet music all night and they lost their way quite a few times.)

JPJ spent most of the evening playing bass behind the 4 leads. (A minor disappointment, as I was hoping for some mandolin jamming or something. Oh well.) He did play mandolin on a version of “Going To California” (1 of 2 Zep songs performed) but it was an instrumental, featuring only himself and Nickel Creek guitarist Sean Watkins. Jones also sang harmony vocals (!) behind Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins on a cute little ukulele-driven song titled “Anthony”.

Other highlights included a high-energy rendition of The Beatles’ “Taxman” and several fast-paced bluegrass instrumentals. Phillips did a song titled “I Don’t Need Anything” that I could have sworn was a Randy Newman song from the ’70s.

JPJ rarely spoke to the crowd, although he did make a funny comment about “Thanks for not going to see Clapton” (who also played in Portland tonight). Sara Watkins told a story about accidentally getting onto Clapton’s tourbus, after which Phillips looked over at JPJ and said something to the effect of, “Our tour stories aren’t quite as exciting as mudsharks, eh?”!!

For you fashion-minded types, Jones was wearing a black outfit with red trim that I would describe as, “half kimono, half leisure suit”. He looked in excellent shape for a man of 58 — much better than poor Pete Thomas, who’s starting to look like Jason Robards!

The climax of the evening (for me at least) was the first encore, when they came out and did “Gallows Pole”. Phillips sang lead vocals (about an octave lower than Plant did) and the arrangement was similar to Page & Plant’s 1994 No Quarter/Unledded version. Chris Thile (of Nickel Creek) is an amazing mandolin player, although he looks a bit out of place when he tries to “rock out” and do the duckwalk!

Anyway, it was a great show. If you get a chance to see them live, don’t pass it up because they probably won’t extend the tour beyond next month.

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