Event Details:
Date: May 22, 2024
Venue: Brooklyn Paramount (Brooklyn)
Ticket Price: $97.50
Artist: Amos Lee
An old friend and I used to stay up all night playing acoustic guitar and singing Amos Lee, usually at the expense of his girlfriend that would yell at us to keep it down because she needed to go to work the next day. I finally got a chance to see Amos Lee in concert tonight and damn he was so good! There are a few songs that give me goosebumps every time I hear them so I was really looking forward to seeing tonight’s show.
A lot of his early music was classic singer-songwriter acoustic stuff with a soulful mix of country and folk, but for this tour, he had a full band playing with him, including two guitars, bass, drums and keys. Each member in the band was super talented and Amos allowed them all to showcase their skills throughout the evening, but the lead guitar chick was so badass! They said she just joined the band a couple of weeks ago but you would have had no idea by the way she was just wailing on her Fender.
In my opinion, Amos’ voice is what separates him from his contemporaries and he almost reminds me of Norah Jones in a way, so kind of ironic that I saw them at the same venue within a week of each other. Though I would characterize Amos as more nasally and has an incredibly beautiful head voice that he made sure to put on full display this evening.
Many of the songs he played tonight were dedicated to people that have passed but it never felt sad, more like a celebration. He also brought out a few guests throughout the evening to perform with him. Highlights from the set include “Violin”, which was even more beautiful live than I could have ever imagined, and “Flower”, where he finally got the Boomer crowd out of their seats and brought some life to the room. Not that I think the show was dull prior to that but I don’t like this sittin’ business at concerts. The only time sitting is acceptable to me is at the symphony or a jazz club, otherwise I want to be on my feet.
He closed the set with my favorite song, “Windows are Rolled Down”, but unfortunately had some issues with his acoustic guitar and the local trio he brought out to sing with him didn’t really know the song so they all kind of improvised but rather poorly.
Altogether it was a great evening and another bucket list show in the books.
Cheers and keep rocking!