review by Matthew Powers<\/p>\n
Dressed in a drab t-shirt and blue jeans, Mason Jennings let his warm baritone and subtle guitar playing color November 5th\u2019s concert at the Belly-Up. \u201cAdrien,\u201d off the singer\u2019s third LP Century Spring<\/i>, began his performance. The song\u2019s solemn yet affirming mood set the tone for the remainder of the night: understated instrumentation and wistful lyrics of nature, God, and life that managed to sound distinctive.<\/p>\n
\tA cover of Neil Young\u2019s \u201cOut on the Weekend\u201d bisected the set. The fact that the tune was recorded before most Belly-Up patrons were born was self-evident; it was the only song no one sang along to. Nonetheless it provided one of the most poignant moments of the night. The bucolic imagery, and plaintive delivery of Young\u2019s tune morphed seamlessly with the minimalist aesthetic of Jenning\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n
\tYoung\u2019s impulse to \u201cbuy a pick-up\/ take it down to LA\u201d also fit in with a surprising theme of the night: California. Jennings\u2019 (a Minnesotan) paeans to our state included \u201cCalifornia\u201d and \u201cBig Sur,\u201d luminous songs that drifted off into imagery-rich, pantheistic introspection.<\/p>\n
\tThe concert was not an unadulterated triumph however. Jennings was totally solo: just him, his guitar, and the occasional harmonica. Although the asceticism of the night sometimes led to greater intimacy Jennings could have used backing musicians. I saw him in Santa Cruz last June, complete with a bassist and keyboardist. The additional musicians fleshed out his sparse sound, compelling the crowd to head-bob and even mosh-pit for one brief moment.<\/p>\n
\tAt Solana Beach the crowd was certainly pleased with the performance but not enraptured. The full spectrum of emotions displayed by the Santa Cruz audience was limited to one on Monday night: quiet admiration.<\/p>\n
\tStill, the show was certainly a success. Stylistically Jennings does nothing remarkable, but his slurry, conversational vocals and unaffected poetry provide a refreshing antidote to the frat-folk of bores like Jack Johnson.<\/p>\n
\tMichael McDermott opened for Jennings. His throaty, extremely emotive vocals reminded me of the anthemic roots-rock of early Bruce Springsteen, circa 1974.<\/p>\n
MP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mason Jennings 11\/11\/07, Belly Up Tavern review by Matthew Powers Dressed in a drab t-shirt and blue jeans, Mason Jennings let his warm baritone and subtle guitar playing color November 5th\u2019s concert at the Belly-Up. \u201cAdrien,\u201d off the singer\u2019s third LP Century Spring, began his performance. The song\u2019s solemn yet affirming mood set the tone for the remainder of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[262],"class_list":["post-401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-mason-jennings-at-the-belly-up"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":586,"url":"http:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2005\/08\/08\/peter-jennings\/","url_meta":{"origin":401,"position":0},"title":"Peter Jennings","author":"admin","date":"August 8, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"R.I.P. 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