Concert Review: Gin Blossoms at Wildhorse Saloon 6/26/2008

The Gin Blossoms have an impressive catalog of really good songs, considering their somewhat rocky history of personnel issues, hiatuses, and limited discography of 4 (best I can tell) original studio albums from 1987 to present. The titles of two of their albums reflect this history ("Up and Crumbling" and "New Miserable Experience"). Nonetheless they have many hits attributable to their strong song writing abilities. So I was looking forward to an excellent performance heading to the Wildhorse this evening.

The lineup has been fairly stable the past few years. Robin Wilson is on vocals, tambourine, and acoustic guitar, Jessie Valenzuela on lead guitar and vocals, Scott Johnson on second lead guitar, Bill Leen on bass, and Scott Kusmirek on drums. The playing was tight, with impressive trade-offs between Valenzuela and Johnson being the highlight. These guys can both rock out and play some impressive "feel" segments, and their interaction worked well. The set list was impressive as well. There were plenty of hits to be heard during the first two thirds of the show like "Day Job", "Fool for the Taking", crowd pleaser "Found Out About You", and "Long Time Gone", amongst others. Despite all this I wasn't overly impressed and it didn't take me long to figure out why.

I've seen it many times before. The band lacked energy. When all the other elements are there, good set list, good playing (technically), nice sized crowd, but the band lacks that "taking over the room" presence, it's an energy issue. About two-thirds through the show Wilson stated it was time for us to get up on our feet, and normally that would be about right. During a good performance a crowd will normally be up on their feet by this time, if not sooner. So when the front man needs to get you up it's a sure sign something's missing.