Review: Pat Metheny Unity Group (12 March 2014, Michigan Theatre)
I'm seeing Pat Metheny's Unity Group twice this week, once in Michigan and once in Ohio. (I had tickets for Rockville, MD, too, but they got sold by the person who was actually in possession of them.) Setlist and spoilers after the jump. The setlist is from memory, but the most important part is bolded and placed in italics. The show started about ten minutes after the listed start time of 8PM.
Pikasso intro
(Potter, Williams, and Sanchez come out) Come And See
Roofdogs
New Year
James
(Pat speaks, Giulio Carmassi comes out to operate the Orchestrion) Kin
Rise Up
Born
Bright Size Life (Duet with Williams)
Countdown (the Coltrane tune, Duet with Potter)
Dream Of The Return (Duet with Carmassi, who vocalizes instead of singing in Portugese)
(Go) Get It (Duet with Sanchez)
On Day One
(Pat speaks), HAVE YOU HEARD
(First encore) Are You Going With Me
(Second encore, Pat alone) Medley/Last Train Home
Total run time was about two hours and forty minutes. I was thrilled for the entire thing, start to finish; this was, in terms of song choice and overall musicianship, the most satisfying Metheny gig I've seen since 8 April 2002, which was my second shot at the "Speaking Of Now" Tour. Furthermore, this was the first time I've heard the band play "Have You Heard" since 7 March 1995, their "We Live Here" tour appearance in Columbus, Ohio. To say I was happy about it would be the understatement of the year.
Just a few quibbles, none of which really had much negative impact except the last one. To begin with, I am sooooo over the Pikasso guitar intro. Most of it is fixed-tuning and therefore any Pikasso song is going to be fairly predictable. The plain fact is that Pat's medley at the end (performed, oddly enough, on an Ovation six-string instead of a Manzer) demonstrates what a master he is of getting any sound he wants out of a regular guitar. The Pikasso is boring. Okay. I would have preferred that the Carmassi duet be something besides "Dream of The Return", which is Pedro Aznar's signature tune. That song has words with a meaning (if you know Portugese, you can hear it for yourself) and replacing those words with vocalizations diminished it. Giulio should have learned the song or done something else.
I also was disappointed by Pat's Ibanez guitar tone throughout the evening. It sounded terrible --- squeaky, lacking depth. Part of it was probably the venue, but everything else sounded great including the Orchestrion bottles, so I'm thinking it was perhaps whatever effects box Pat is using now in place of his traditional pair of Lexicon Prime Times. He just didn't sound good, and it wasn't his playing. Since this was a Group show, as opposed to a Trio show, it didn't matter as much. On the positive side, the G-303/VG-8 combo was exactly what you'd expect.
That's it for this one. It was a great night and I'm ready for an evening of focused listening in Columbus on Thursday. But first, I'm off to Louisville for the TTAC Podcast!!!!