Posted on: Friday, January 30, 2004
CONCERT REVIEW
Raitt, Cray performances hold crowd at Waikiki Shell enthralled
By Chad Pata
As Bonnie Raitt and Robert Cray brought their blues stylings to the Waikiki Shell, even the light stands were swaying to the music.
Although the wind and rain that plagued Wednesday night's Jimmy Buffet concert remained, the hour-long wait to get inside was gone, despite a near-capacity crowd and a 6:30 p.m. start.
Opening was the Robert Cray Band, which has been touring for four decades — and the tightness of its set was evidence of its longevity.
Cray was supposed to be the next B.B. King, but his forays into pop music have held back that reputation in some circles.
He showed both sides last night. Tub-thumping tunes like "Back Door Slam" and "Twelve Year Old Baby" sounded straight out of the Mississippi Delta and elicited hoots from the crowd.
"Time Makes Two" was sensational, with Cray showing off his intricate fret work, and drummer Kevin Hayes picking up a set of mallets to give the song deeper resonance.
Yet, tunes like "Up in the Sky" with its Indian sitar effects on Cray's guitar left the crowd a bit perplexed, causing them to call for Cray's most successful tune, "Smoking Gun."
He obliged them in his finale, showing off why he has five Grammys with a fiery close.
After a lightning-quick changeover — barely fifteen minutes — the stage was flushed with purple light as the owner of that signature mane of red hair sauntered onto the stage with her guitar slung over her shoulder.
Watching her play for the first time, only one word comes to mind: moxie.
Opening with "Show You" she waled the guitar like T-Bone Walker, but without losing an ounce of her femininity. As if to prove it, she moved immediately into the thinly veiled sexual howler "Gnawin' On It."
Seeing a woman in her 50s grinding that guitar around the stage while belting out those lyrics was a sight to behold. Pure moxie.
This is not to say that she only has that down-and-dirty facet.
She's emotional. She followed up with an acoustical version of her hit "Have a Heart." Later, she dedicated "Nick of Time" to her father, Broadway star John Raitt, whose 87th birthday was yesterday.
She's political. Before singing her final song, she told everyone to get out and vote because that is the only way democracy works.
Earlier in the set, she made her feelings on the war known.
"This is a song about making the best out of a bad situation; let's hope we can do that at the end of this year, if you know what I mean," said Raitt, as guest keyboarder Jon Cleary began the haunting notes of "Silver Lining."
She's educated. A Radcliffe grad with a degree in African studies, Raitt brought Zimbabwean rhythms into the plaintive "Hear me Lord."
Finally, she's a professional. Even when her monitor was blowing out her eardrums because of a problem with the kick drum, she calmly asked them to fix the problem while she picked up her acoustic guitar and played the bluesy "Love Me like a Man" and the folksy "Angel from Montgomery."
Once the technical difficulties were solved, she turned the volume back up with crowd favorite "Thing Called Love."
It has been 30 years since her first show at the Waikiki Shell with Jackson Browne, but I'll flat guarantee that she hasn't lost any of that fire. And the thousands who braved the rain to see her were warmed by it last night.
