Last Wednesday Guster came to the Orpheum stage and performed a concert that transcended nearly 25 years worth of music. With their newest album Evermotion having just been released, the group was back with a multi-generational set list that had the audience reminiscing about the good old days and swaying to the beat of their new laid-back sound.
Opening for the band was the experimental indie artist Kishi Bashi, who showed off his impressive versatility through a variety of songs. He is known for performing with his violin as well as catchy synth beats. He put on a largely interactive show in which he jumped into the crowd to dance with the audience, got the audience to sing one of his clever rhythms and even got a huge cheer when he took off his suit coat.
While his more up-tempo songs did not get the crowd moving as much as he might have hoped, he tried to get the whole crowd jumping during one song and did not fully succeed, he had the audience swooning during some of his more low-tracks that focused more on his voice and violin. His performance of “Bright Whites” was trance-like and masterfully performed.
After winning over the crowd with his last song “Manchester,” which also happens to be one of his most popular songs, Kishi Bashi also got the crowd pumped up for the main event, Guster. But this was not the last we would see of the violin-playing, falsetto-singing and beat-programming artist.
When Guster walk on the stage the group of guys were dressed in goofy smiles and silly dance moves. After waving to the audience they kicked off their set with “Long Night,” the first song off of their 2015 release. Guster is one of those bands that sounds not only just as good live, but somehow way better, and this was pretty obvious in this first song when it felt like you had stepped into the song with the band.
Recently the band has received a little bit of flack for focusing too much on their new music and not playing crowd favorites. This was not the case at the Orpheum on Wednesday. After lead vocalist and front man Ryan Miller said “We’re gonna play a bunch of songs from our multi-generational career,” the group broke into the song “Careful” from their album Keep it Together from 2003.
After playing this song Miller went on to comment “So many instruments. Why do we have to change instruments every song?” This was an interesting point because between almost every song they had to switch their instruments. And this didn’t just mean swapping type of instrument; they would all swap what they were playing. The bass player would switch to drums, the guitar player played trumpet, the lead singer played the ukulele and the drummer played trombone. And these are only some examples of the interchangeability of these talented musicians. They were switching all night.
They moved on to another classic, “The Captain” from Ganging Up on the Sun, their 2006 album, which had the crowd singing along. From there they switched back to another song from their most recent album called “Doin’It By Myself.” At this point the lighting from the Orpheum really came into play, every time the band reached the lyric “That’s being alive, being alive,” the whole room would light up, really highlighting the free-loving spirit of the song and the band.
In the next song, another oldie called “Red Oyster Cult” showed once again just how comparable their live performance is to their albums, they have clearly had a lot of practice performing in front of an audience.
After this, Miller said they were going to take a risk and play a song from their new album that they’ve had a hard time making sound good live. When “Expectation” started I decided they had nothing to worry about because in line with the rest of the concert, they sounded amazing.
Miller then began talking about how whenever he’s in Madison he likes to buy something from a thrift store. In fact, he pointed out that the shirt he was wearing at the time was one he had bought there that day. After the break this story provided the band broke into a jam session about thrift shops and that great feeling you get when something fits just right and it is your shit.
“What You Call Love” was filled with tons of energy after their jam session. There was even a trumpet solo in the middle of the song. Then “Lightning Rod” slowed things down with a haunting melody that isn’t seen in any of their other songs.
When the group played “Do You Love Me,” my personal favorite song of theirs, I came to the realization that the music video for this song represents perfectly how the band moves around on the stage. They don’t move around much, mostly just bopping around, but they somehow captivate the entire room with their large personalities.
Other songs they played included “Come Downstairs and Say Hello,” “Manifest Destiny” and “Happier.” What’s neat about Guster is their ability to play songs from so many different albums dating back years and yet create a sound so cohesive you would believe it all came from one amazing record.
Guster did something unique that I have not seen a lot of groups do during a concert. Towards the end of the concert they brought the opener back out to play with them. Kishi Bashi joined the band with his violin for “Simple Machine” and stayed for “Satellite,” the song everyone in the audience was waiting for. At this point Guster was in a groove and smiling along as they jammed with the artist they seem to have enjoyed touring with.
After the show Guster admitted they were going to play an encore regardless of whether or not the audience wanted one, which the audience did. But before starting the encore the audience had to shoot ping pongs into the mouths of the band. Although it took some time, eventually the encore began. They closed the show with songs mostly from their most recent album.
Guster is an amazing band to watch live and was worth going out on a Wednesday night for. I hope they make it back to Madison again some time soon.
