Thursday, 9:15 pm: Screams of teenage girls fill the Houston Field House. 9:16 pm: Guster plays “Happier.” 9:20 pm: The audience is much happier.
Opening the concert for Guster was southern quartet Ingram Hill. These guys have become popular in the southeastern U.S., being based out of Memphis, Tenn. If their job was to entertain and warm-up the crowd, then I think they failed. Every song that they sang sounded the same as the previous; but worse. After 45 minutes of torture, every second between Ingram Hill leaving and Guster taking the stage was a lifetime.
Guster is often billed as a very entertaining band to see live, which is good considering they have been touring now for several years taking breaks only to record albums. While other bands use pyrotechnics to amuse audiences, Guster reverts to the more fan-pleasing method of performing different versions of their songs as well as random covers. They did things like open up “Homecoming King” with the theme to FunkyTown. The also did the “Bible Version” of “What You Wish For” which is much lower and has an alternate verse. As well they did “Medicine” with Joe’s Hot Lix (which are added guitar parts that rocked the house). Perhaps the most memorable moment of the concert would have to be drummer Brian, breaking into his vocal career with a cover of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Due to the band’s open policy on recording, a quick search on, http://www.archive.org/audio/ for Guster will lead you to legal, lossless quality recordings of Thursday night’s entire concert.
The band took a majority of their tracks from their newest release Keep it Together. However, they wanted to bring back a few favorites from Parachute so they tried to play “The Prize.” This song soon became nothing more than a guitar riff as the band tried to remember the words and the notes for the song. It was very humorous and was received by the audience as a good gesture. They managed to play the song “Parachute” from the same album without any memory loss.
Guster has had few opportunities to headline their own shows due to opening on the current John Mayer tour. Many times throughout the evening they mentioned their excitement for being able to play more than just 45 minutes for a change. Their added energy was apparent all the way past their last number. Realizing that the whole “encore” idea has been exhausted, before their “last” number they announced that instead of going backstage and waiting for us to clap to bring them back out, they would simply invite their sound-technician to the stage and let him get all the praise. They didn’t bother attempting a second encore, since they had done four songs during their first encore, and after concluding “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” there was nothing that could’ve surpassed it.
The concert seemed to attract more surrounding middle and high school students than RPI ones by a long shot. The general admission section of the Field House was sold out and they started selling tickets for the seats. However, those who sat down during the concert would have missed out in the several crowd-surfing attempts, and Public Safety weaving through the crowd searching for evil-doers.
Fans of the Bostonian trio (nearing quartet status) found an amazing concert by one of their favorite bands. Mere acquaintances with the group were presented a show of great talent and good fun, close to home with a low price tag. Guster is always a promising show, delivering on both talent and humor.
