Hall & Oates, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings MGM Grand Garden Arena, September 23.
Daryl Hall and John Oates have earned a place among the most gracious performers I’ve ever seen. Their set at the MGM Grand Garden Arena was generous with the hits—everything from “Maneater” to “She’s Gone” to “Out of Touch.” They repeatedly expressed their gratitude to the crowd, even taking note of the competing music festivals happening in town the same night: “We know there’s a lot of music in town tonight, so thanks for coming here,” Oates said.
That’s why I’m wondering if it was generosity or hubris that encouraged Hall & Oates to recruit two opening acts who pretty much mopped the floor with the venerable Philly soul band. Any act that follows the great Sharon Jones already has its work cut out for it: Even at age 60 and battling pancreatic cancer, Jones can still sing circles around performers one-third her age, which Hall & Oates are not. And Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue have a virtuoso approach to rock and soul that should worry any band that was once confident enough to name a greatest hits compilation Rock ‘n Soul Part 1.
I’m not saying that Hall & Oates were in any way bad (though Hall’s lounge-y scatting and call-and-response on “I Can’t Go For That [No Can Do]” nearly stretched the song beyond the limits of my patience). Every hit was faithfully, even lovingly delivered. They even dug down a bit: I didn’t expect to hear 1973’s “Las Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song,” though I guess I should have. (“Once a year we get to play this song in Las Vegas,” Oates said, sounding genuinely pleased.) And I was thrilled to hear the slow-burning “Say It Isn’t So,” which I’ve long maintained is one of the band’s most underrated hits.
But they followed Sharon Jones, who filled “100 Days, 100 Nights” and “Retreat” with holy fire and sweet birdsong. (It cost her, too; she was visibly exhausted at the end of the latter, exclaiming, “Oh my God. Oh, man.”) And the virtuosity of the Dap-Kings was matched only by Orleans Avenue, who rallied around Trombone Shortly like a strike force—an altogether proper behavior for a young powerhouse crew that’s pretty much weaponized New Orleans jazz. They’ll tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers next year, and heaven help Flea and Anthony Kiedis; these Tremé avengers may well eat them alive.
Still, the fact remains that Hall & Oates invited those groups, which makes me like them even more than I did going into last Friday's show. “There ain’t no right or wrong way/Just a play from the heart,” Hall sang in “Do What You Want, Be What You Are.” It’s a fine sentiment, one that rings as true today as when Hall first sang it in 1976. It would be a great way to introduce Trombone Shorty and Sharon Jones, whose sets probably should have followed theirs instead of the other way around.
