Live Review: Al Green, Friday, August 28 @ Edgefield-- Local Cut

Live Review: Al Green, Friday, August 28 @ Edgefield

September 1st, 2009 [2:38PM] Posted by: ARYA IMIG | 1 COMMENT

Anticipation was palpable in the line to get in. The people behind us kept repeating “living legend” and “I hope people don’t just sit there, let them stay home and watch it on YouTube if they’re gonna just sit there.” Both statements rattled around in our heads, too. We were about to be in the presence of genius, of greatness. Would Al Green, one of the last great surviving soul singers of his generation, deliver? And more importantly would an audience that had paid between $40 and $80 to be there make it worth their while? Or would it be a paint by numbers exercise for both parties, a routine performance of greatest hits and predictable responses?

We had to sit for at least a couple of hours before Green took the stage, but the surrounding scenery was pleasant enough to take in to pass the time, and McMennamin’s food and drink, always delightful, was on hand. Local hero Liv Warfield and an eight member group ably warmed the crowd up.

A sky that had threatened to pour rain down cleared up, parting the clouds and shining a light for our man of the hour, the Reverend Al Green. The short answer to the question of whether Green would deliver was answered in the first song with a resounding YES. Al Green delivered with his million dollar smile, inimitable shout screech, and that indelible groove, and it was something special.

Green and his 15 member group turned the lawn at McMenamin’s Edgefield into a giant night club on Friday night. Green’s group consisted of four backup singers, two backup dancers, two drummers, two keyboard players, a three piece horn section, a guitarist, and a bassist. If you include the entire crowd—one of the more active audiences I can remember being a part of at a show of that size—the back up singers and dancers were far greater in number.

Performing for just about an hour, Green played some hits (”Love and Happiness,” “Let’s Stay Together,” “I’m So Tired Of Being Alone,” “Let’s Get Married,” his cover of the Bee Gees’ “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?”) and some new material as well, including the title track to his latest album Lay It Down. All of Green’s material has a timeless quality to it, but as innovative and influential as it has been, it wasn’t created in a vacuum. Green knows this all too well and seemed to acknowledge as much by paying respects to both his gospel roots with a cover of “Nearer My God To Thee” and his soul and R&B forefathers with a medley featuring snippets of of “ICan’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” “My Girl,” and “Wonderful World.”

If there was one complaint to be made it would be that Green’s set, an hour with no encore, felt too short. It’s a small quibble considering how energetic and engaging the spry and charismatic Green was through out the night, whether repeatedly laying on the stage during “Lay It Down” or stalking the stage handing out red roses to the audience. “Love and Happiness,” the commanding finale of the show, was a great note to go out on.

Maybe the lesson was not so much “give ‘em the climax and roll over” but “leave them wanting more.” Lesson learned. I’d go back for seconds.

Links:
Al Green

Photo courtesy of Blurasis

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