The Doobie Brothers and Steve Winwood
MSG, NYC 8/7/24
Two rock and roll hall of fame acts pulled into Madison Square Garden on Wednesday August 7th as The Doobie Brothers continued their extended 50th anniversary tour with Steve Winwood providing opening support.
RtBE's personal preference would have been to flip the acts as Steve Winwood has long been a favorite and simply put the Doobie's aren't, but that wasn't to be. Having seen Winwood multiple times over the years, he always delivers the goods. The most recent show we caught of his was in 2018 and since then the supporting artists have changed. There is no bass player or second guitarist backing Steve as the group consists of Tristan Banks drums, Edwin Sanz - percussion, Nate Williams - keyboards, Paul Booth - sax/flute/Hammond/percussion, and Lilly Winwood - vocals/percussion.
Winwood opened with the super smooth instrumental "Glad" as the players all got loose in front of a crowd that arrived on time, filling up MSG early. The Blind Faith number "Can't Find My Way Home" was up next with Lilly's vocals loud in the mix, at times out shining her father, while "Why Can't We Live Together" was a showcase for the percussionists as Banks and Sanz lead the charge, injecting a Latin vibe to the proceedings which continued during a funky version of the Spencer Davis Group's "I'm A Man".
"Forty Thousand Headmen" mellowed things out with flute work from Booth and he nailed the sax parts during a crisp rendition of "Roll With It" before "Back In The High Life Again" saw Winwood take an extended mandolin solo to end. That was just a warm up however for the clear highlight of the whole night as Winwood tore into a killer version of "Dear Mr. Fantasy" that simply soared throughout the Garden. Winwood took multiple guitar solos and nailed each one, delivering a truly memorable performance.
Following that was hard, but "Higher Love" did a solid job and the biggest reaction from the fans came during the opening notes of set closer "Gimme Some Lovin'" as the motoring number got the older crowd up and dancing wrapping up the hour and fifteen minute set.
After a short break, The Doobie Brothers took the stage as Tom Johnston, Michael McDonald, Pat Simmons & John McFee front the group with support from bassist John Cowan, saxophonist Marc Russo, drummer Ed Toth and percussionist Marc Quiñones. Opening with "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)" the band got their set started with some easy rocking sounds.
McDonald took over vocals and shifted the sound with a bigger focus on keys and sax work from Russo on "Here To Love You" which featured odd Cialis like images on the video screen while "Rockin' Down The Highway" shifted things up a gear. "You Belong To Me" was another McDonald led ballad as the band alternated these in throughout the set.
After some mid level tunes, things picked up towards the end of the set as "Jesus Is Just Alright" had the crowd up and singing, McDonald delivered his best ballad "What A Fool Believes" and the set closing pairing of "Long Train Runnin'" into "China Grove" had some nifty guitar lines, percussion, sax and harmonica work from the group.
The encore was a few more hits from the band as the twangy "Black Water" strolled out with ease while McDonald and Russo paired up again for an instrumental version of "Still Crazy After All These Years". The night ended with the upbeat arena rock of "Takin' It To The Streets" and "Listen To The Music" delivering the arena rock serviceable goods to a very receptive fan base.
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