Concert: James Taylor, Tweeter Center

James Taylor's music was threaded into my brain at an obscenely early age by my mother. As a result, I spent most of my life publicly mocking JT while inwardly enjoying his music, as any good teenage son should. It was only in the last few years that I dropped the "James Taylor is pretty lame" routine and admitted to loving his music. So when a free ticket to last night's concert fell into my lap (thanks again, Brandi), I was pretty pumped.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived was that the crowd was younger than I expected. Don't get me wrong: the place was drenched in drunken women in their forties (more on them later). But there was also a very strong representation from the mid-twenties set, which was great. My second realization: amphitheater shows for quieter bands are weird. You can hear EVERYBODY. All the time. For some reason, at the 311 shows, the crowd noise is a lot less noticeable. Odd.

My third realization: James Taylor kicks ass in concert. It's true. The first set was fairly slow and gentle, with the exception of a cool rendition of "Mexico". But the second set... wow. Specifically this three song run he did of "Country Road", "Steamroller", and "How Sweet It Is". Unbelievable. "Country Road" got dialed up a few notches, and I don't know how I never heard what a cool rock song it is before. The drummer got so into the song, there were some G'n'R tom hits that popped him right off his stool. They went right into "Steamroller", which was amazing. 12 bar blues really pops out at you live, and this was no exception. It was more of a jam session than a song, with Taylor not bothering to articulate most of the words in favor of jazzy vocal nonsense that was a whole lot of fun. When the perfectly orchestrated "How Sweet It Is" started, it was the home stretch of some of the most impeccably performed music I've ever heard live. I couldn't have been more happy when I left. Bravo.