This concert review brought to you by Miller High Life:
Ok so it wasn't Rhett and a band, it was Rhett and his acoustic guitar. That was a let-down, but certainly not anyone's fault. I was ready for some full band action, so I left with blueballs.
Rhett's not the way I pictured him. He's... slicker. He tells little anecdotes between songs with the kind of mindless polish that suggesta a lotta practice. He frequently reverts to "hooray for you guys" local praise that always gets a cheap round of applause - I could do without it. But he's nothing if not a showman. If there's a scale for such things with [Billy Corgan walking off stage if someone farts] at one end and [Al Green performing his ass off no matter what's going on] at the other, Rhett's over near Al territory. He was obviously distracted by something, but he hid it well. I say "obviously" because I counted 5 different chord flubs*, and I left before it was over, so I didn't see all the songs... I think something was up.
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He plays that acoustic really, really hard, and it's not the best guitar for it. That particular guitar sounded kinda thin when he pushed it that hard. But that creaky, trembly, emotive voice is almost uncannily on pitch, and carries very well when he pushes it. It hooks you in. And the quirky sense of humor helps to kill the time while he's tuning.
All in all, he put on a very good show, for a guy and a guitar. I'd still prefer to see him with a band, because a lot of those songs sound better with the band shoving them along at a good clip, but he made more out of them alone than I thought he could.
* For the non-musicians, a "chord flub" is when you accidentally go for the wrong chord during a song, then correct it quickly. It can be so fast that most people miss it, or it can be painfully long, where you cannot come up with the right chord, and just play some mush till the next chord hits. Understandable when you're drunk, covering something by someone else. Not so understandable when you do it once every 4 songs, playing your own material, sober, and your material is 90% in G, C, and D. Not the end of the world, but not something the performer wants to happen.