Gallery: Zac Brown Band performs at Van Andel Arena Nov. 8, 2012
Zac Brown Band Live at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan Event Ended Fri Dec 11 2015 at 08:00 pm Van Andel Arena Grand Rapids, Michigan, 130 Fulton St W, Grand Rapids, United States.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - It normally takes a large personality to entertain a large building.
Zac Brown, however, is about as low-key and humble as a man in front of several thousand adoring fans can be. The folk-country artist and his six-piece backing band exhibited no oversized ego or arrogant posturing at their Van Andel Arena show, but rather, let the emphasis fall on the music, which was executed with sincerity and conviction.
A good songwriter like Brown doesn’t need to puff a performance full of hot air – strong songs provide a direct connection with an audience. Anything else is obfuscation. It’s important to note that the Zac Brown Band has torn up the country-radio charts, even though they don’t contribute to the cult of personality that commercial success often demands. Letting the music speak for itself in the live venue is something artists yearn for, but don’t always achieve.
Sure, the group was backed by a large-scale production, including a massive, half-circle lighting rig arching over the stage, and high-def screens projecting song-specific imagery or enlarged shots of the band's performance. Big venues like Van Andel Arena beg for such enhancement. But it never overshadowed the group's versatility and ability to execute its material with absolute conviction. Brown even complimented the audience on its love of music, referencing the last time he played in the Grand Rapids area, at 2009's B-93 Birthday Bash, when crowds in Ionia stuck around to see the acts despite extremely flooded parking lots.
Interestingly, the band is quietly eclectic, blending a variety of styles while still retaining its core identity: fingerpicked hoedowns, big sweeping country ballads, riff-driven Southern rock, chillout anthems with Caribbean rhythms. Standouts include the Jimmy Buffett-esque island-breezy tracks “Toes” and “No Hurry,” and the shamelessly massive choruses of “Free” and “Goodbye in Her Eyes.”
The Zac Brown Band displayed a playful side when it ran through stomping bluegrass cuts. Case in point, 'It's Not OK,' which featured versatile, fastpicked solos from Brown, mandolin player Clay Cook and violinist Jimmy De Martini. The song was followed by an extended jam that allowed the band to stretch out, and showcase more passionate solos, De Martini's searing fiddle being the standout.
The group broke up the show with an acoustic set, during which they played a surprisingly straight cover of Nirvana’s “All Apologies” with nicely harmonized vocals. Less creative was turning Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion” into a half-hoedown, although it did bring the crowd to its feet.
Although its nearly two-hour set felt repetitive down the stretch due to an abundance of balladry, the Zac Brown Band offers a subtle contrast to its heavily processed peers in country music. The group isn’t unvarnished, but neither is it so slick as to smother its sincerity with phony calculation.
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