The 90s bands are out and about! Three of those bands mentioned in the title are out there together as part of the “Good Intentions” tour. So, let’s get into it.
First off, the venue was very nice. It was the Westville Music Bowl in New Haven, CT. Clean, friendly staff, not a bad seat in the house. Hadn’t been here before, likely will be back. But they must not be advertising anywhere because the place was so empty. And you can’t blame the lineup because I looked for available tickets for several other shows and all have plenty of seats left. Very odd. Maybe people are feeling the pinch and tired of exuberant ticket prices?
Anyway, Sixpence None the Richer was the opener. They were ok but nothing special. A bit boring if being honest. But I do believe the singer was potentially sick and/or overheated. It was a 90-degree day outside and the sun had just set low enough to not be blasting the stage by the time they came out, but it was still hot. She was wearing pants, boots, and probably a few too many layers too which didn’t help. She also seemed to be coughing a bit. It certainly took away from her energy and voice. They performed their hits of course, There She Goes, and Kiss Me – the 90s mega-hit featured in the movie “She’s All That,” and played in probably every grocery store to this day on a regular basis. They also do a cover of Don’t Dream It’s Over by Crowded House that is pretty decent. The original is superior though.
KT Tunstall was next, and if you ask me, she stole the show! This was only her 2nd gig on this tour as I believe another band was part of the first half (Semisonic maybe?). She ran out on stage all energetic, and introduced “the band” right away. The band was her and a mixer type of recording device that she said could be yours on Amazon “for no more than $480.” She used this device to record a quick drum beat on her guitar, maybe record some finger snapping or random mouth noises, and then playback the sound on a loop, play guitar over it, and sing. She was a one woman show doing this for about every song. It was a pretty cool approach.
Throughout her set, she told stories, made everyone laugh, had a great attitude, and talked about “nutscaping” which was a story tied to her album titled “Nut.” Google it if you dare! She played her hits (that you likely know even if you think you don’t know her) including Other Side of the World, Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, and Suddenly I See. She did some mashups with her own songs and other well-known songs, she covered Tom Petty’s I Won’t Back Down, and Don Henley’s Boys of Summer.
She almost ran out of time due to all the talking and storytelling but squeezed in her full set. She was great the whole night. I do believe she really won this crowd over. Her merch line got a little long after her set which was cool to see. I’d really recommend catching her live if you can. While the albums are well produced and probably have session musicians helping to bring the full sound, she’s very impressive as a solo artist armed with an acoustic guitar and some fun tools. She had Brandi Carlisle vibes. Great musician and singer.
The headliner was Toad the Wet Sprocket. They had to follow KT who set the bar very high. Personally, while I was psyched to see these guys, I had my doubts they’d reach the bar. In my humble opinion, I think they fell short. If talking radio hits, they certainly had their fair share in the 90s and had more singles than both openers. Overall, they are mellow band, so I knew it wouldn’t be a high energy rock show but I was hoping for a good show. I will say that when multiple band members were singing, they had great harmonies.
They started off with Windmills which is a newer one and did Something’s Always Wrong next. This was a radio hit in the 90s, but I was apparently the only one of our group who knew it. When they got to All I Want about halfway through the set, it fell flat for me. He didn’t really push his vocals and to me he came across as whiney and nasally. But when they did Good Intentions (acoustic version) right after, it was solid. Crazy Life and Fall Down were the last two songs of the main set. Fall Down is probably one of the more energetic songs of theirs and he hit the notes nicely on that one.
As they ended their set, he quickly said “they’re shutting us down in three minutes” so they went right into their encore Walk on the Ocean without the fake leaving the stage, come back for the encore thing that bands feel obligated to do.
Don’t get me wrong. No hate here. They sounded good. They were just a little boring due to lack of energy. Also, my personal gripe, the only album of theirs I owned back in the day was “Coil.” I always loved their song Come Down but it’s nowhere to be found on this tour. So that was a bummer as well.
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