Etheridge’s Revival Tour Effectively Mixes Message, Music

Review & Photos

By John Voket

What a revival it was!

After turning highly critical of Grammy and Oscar-winning songstress Melissa Etheridge following her turn at last summer’s Live Earth — where she paced and ranted almost as much as she sang — it was great to roll out of the Ives Concert Park’s opening show of the 2008 season after the final encore totally satisfied.

In the ensuing year since Live Earth, Etheridge has found a perfect balance delivering a fantastic musical performance, while seasoning the pot with a dash of astute political commentary; sprinkling in a few deeply personal stories about her life, her loves, her cancer; topping it all off with a hopeful message reflecting her newfound appreciation of life and the planet we all share.

When she wasn’t dodging between full-tilt rock and roll and introspective ballads, Etheridge was true to her revival theme, engaging the crowd without any of the self-absorbed preachiness I was anticipating. Instead, she used the stage as pulpit, her songs as hymns, and her guitar as a staff, propping up all but a couple of songs with those trademark jangling 12-string rhythms.

For the first time in all the 20 years seeing her live, Etheridge appeared much more focused on being part of a band than the star out in front of a contingent of faceless backing musicians. On at least three occasions she bowed to her fellow players — veteran drummer Fritz Lewak, bassist Mark Browne, keyboard/guitarist Paul Trudeau and the stellar Philip Sayce on lead guitar — referring to them as “the greatest band in the world.”

Highlights of the show on the intimate ballad side of the program included “You Can Sleep While I Drive,” from her sophomore effort, Brave and Crazy, a touching take on “Angels Would Fall,” her cancer recovery theme, “I Run for Life,” and a seamless transition from “2001” into her Oscar winning “I Need to Wake Up,” from Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.

Leading into the medium tempo megahit, “I Want to Come Over,” Etheridge recalled one of the periods in her life where she was looking for love.

“Well, I found one,” she related to hoots and hollers from the crowd. Then turning with a wink, she warned, “But be careful what you’re looking for — because you may get it, with all the drama that comes with it.”

“The Only One” was a sultry powerhouse with Sayce cutting loose for all he was worth, taking the straight ahead rocker and subtly shifting it to a jammy blues feel toward the end. While he staked out his place on the stage, the guitarist was lured into a couple of moments of brilliant interplay with Etheridge, once when she dragged him over in front of the PA stack where she started using the neck of her guitar as a slide for his guitar.

Later in the set, during another blistering solo during “Open Your Mind,” Etheridge suddenly bent over and Sayce was right there rubbing his guitar across her backside — a simple enough trick that brought screaming feedback from his amplifier stack as well as the crowd.

Choosing another opportunity to mix the old and new, Etheridge crooned the wonderful “Message to Myself” from her latest offering, The Awakening, mixing into a too abbreviated sample from “Come to My Window.”

The set drew to a close with an untitled number she described as “a song I’m making up right here just for you,” which actually seemed a little too well rehearsed, although she did seem to cobble together some of the lyrical content on the fly. Then, after thanking her fans for not only spending their hard-earned money on a ticket, but also for the gas to drive to the show, Etheridge closed with her breakthrough rocker, “Like the Way I Do.”

During a brief chat prior to the show, Etheridge looked skyward with relevant concern as rain began to fall. Those who may have attended her last Ives performance four summers ago may recall the torrential downpour that put a damper even on this spunky performer.

But the will of her many fans did the trick, and the evening came off with nary a drop to be seen. I have to believe the energy Etheridge was able to sustain to the very end of her three-hour set came from wanting to make up a little for those who may have been driven out of the venue by Mother Nature the last time around.

The Ives Concert series, presented in cooperation with Premier Concerts of Waterbury and the Ridgefield Playhouse, continues July 6 with the jam band moe. Frankie Valli appears July 10, followed by singer Ani DiFranco July 15 and Warren Haynes and Gov’t Mule July 26.

Tickets for all shows are still available at Ticketmaster.com.