I have a new musical crush. His name is Eric Hutchinson. The only thing that could have made my Saturday night at the Georgia Theater any better was if he had asked for my phone number after his set.
After originally purchasing a ticket with the intention to see G.Love & The Special Sauce perform, I was pleasantly surprised to learn E-Hutch would be opening. Turns out, he stole the show. He is just the kind of underdog artist you pay $20 to see open for someone, but who you’d really like to see headlinining for $50.
Hutchinson may not be completely original in his sound, but that’s okay, because what he does, he does well. As the saying goes, don’t fix it if it ain’t broke. He was named a VH1 “You Oughta Know” artist in September 2008 and is the classic singer-songwriter that I unabashedly always seem to fall for. I knew I’d be into him, especially knowing that his sound is a colorful mixture of Gavin DeGraw and Jason Mraz.
Missing the first song due to a bit of a parking debacle, I arrived to Hutchinson rocking out on the keyboard, singing “Outside Villanova.” Clad in a suit and tie, he looked just as good as he sounded.
Throughout the nine-song show, he toggled back and forth between the keyboard and guitar. It’s hard to find an artist who sounds as strong live as he does on his album, but Hutchinson sounded better, and he didn’t take all the credit. Announcing Jimmy Coleman on the drums and Tone Winfield (I’m taking liberties with a spelling guess here) on the bass not once but twice, Hutchinson appreciated his band. A great musician and a nice guy?! I’m crushing even harder…
They say people feed off positive energy. Whoever said this might have been in the crowd that night. Hutchinson’s pop-y energy was radiant. What a crowd-pleaser this one is. It could have been that everyone was in good spirits due to the copious amounts of PBR flowing, but the more likely cause for this reaction was simple. Great music, great entertainment.
The size of the crowd was impressive for two reasons. 1. It was 9PM on a Saturday night in Athens, Georgia. At this time, most college kids are just starting to “pre-game” for a night out on the town. 2. He was the opening act. It’s not every day you see an opener with such a large turnout. This made me happy for my new crush, and it was quite apparent how happy it made him. He repeatedly thanked the audience for coming and joked about “making it [to the show]on time.”
I couldn’t tell you the last time I’ve seen someone work a crowd like Hutchinson did. This guy has a gift. While people seemed a bit distracted in the first half of the set, he sure honed it in midpoint. In his second to last song and arguably his best sing-along song, he split the theater in two for a little call and response action with “Oh”. This was an automatic fan favorite. He played up his strengths, knowing that many of his audience members wouldn’t be completely familiar with his music. “Come on, I’ll teach it to you,” Hutchinson joked. Well the crowd complied, learned and sang along.
“Back to Where I Was” was a song that was previously foreign to me but after Hutchinson told the audience, “When I start to play, just flip out,” I was intrigued. “Pretend this is the song you came to see,” he exclaimed. He is just as vivacious as his songs are. Grabbing the guitar, his easy voice was a nice change of pace for this number. The nostalgic song makes you want to throw your hair up, roll the windows down and drive for miles into the sunset…or sway along with your beverage of choice as I did.
“Food Chain” and “Ok, It’s Alright With Me,” both played by Hutchinson on the keyboard, seemed to score major points with the audience. The well-received songs were the most upbeat of the night and displayed his true playfulness. Total ear candy.
As Hutchinson ended the set with his most popular song “Rock & Roll,” I felt myself dip into teenage girl groupie status. He sang, “If they wanna rock they rock, if they wanna roll they roll.” Well, the crowd wanted both of those things, thus, in turn they danced along to the catchy beat and snapped some final photos of the songster.
Almost a week later, his tunes have resonated with me: in the car, at the gym, and even lullaby-ing me to sleep. This is a rookie who is getting it right. Eric, you’re welcome for this kickass review, it was well deserved. If you’re reading, call me.
No comments:
Post a Comment