Gavin Degraw ~ August 21, 2008 ~ NOLA's ~ Rochester, N.Y.

The crowd, which was made up of mostly younger fans and was mostly female, were looking for a goodtime and Gavin Degraw was ready to give it to them. He walked slowly onto the stage and grabbed a guitar as girls shrieked and jumped up and down. He shuffled to the spotlight, looked up from under his newsboys cap, smiled and began to sing.
It didn't matter that he was not fully involved in the show yet and sort of labored through the first song. They loved him anyway. The band seemed to be almost as detached as Gavin.
This, I thought, was going to be a long night.
The first song ended and he set the guitar aside to sit down behind a grey sparkly piano. He shared with the crowd that he would mix it up between old songs and new ones, then began to once again push his way through another song.
Then, out of nowhere, Gavin came alive and the crowd responded as he ripped into "Next To Me,"off of his new self-titled album. This was a great song and he was really into performing it. He was looking out at the crowd and enjoying how much people loved his creation. With little pause he gave the crowd one of his biggest hits, "Follow Through." This being one of his most popular songs, everyone knew the lyrics. They sang the chorus to Gavin as he prompted them to do so by pointing the mic at them.
He took a moment before leaning into "We Belong Together," a rocking romantic anthem. I thought this was a great time to bring that song in. Its such a good song , it has a killer hook. It just rocks.

Now at the mid point of the show, Gavin was revved and the band was ready to show what they can do, and the first few notes of "Chemical Party" rang through. The arrangement was slow and moody as the song began. Filled with a few nice blues embellishments and riffs, they turned this song into a jam. Seamlessly they blended "Chemical Party" into "Proud Mary" by Ike and Tina Turner. I like that Gavin is not afraid to celebrate his influences. They gave him this soul-filled map to follow and he navigates it well..
Then it was time to bring in a little love back to the show. "Young Love," which is destined to be a hit, started up. I love the lyrics and so did the crowd. They turned gooey and fawned over him as he put his left hand in his pocket and "awe-shucked" his way through a few lines. He was nowhere near finished working the crowd. He brought the show to them by hopping down into the front row and singing in a more intimate manner to a few lucky girls and locking eyes with them.
Meanwhile, the band laid down another bluesy jam.
Ready to play his hits again, Gavin sat back down at the piano and got right to "Cheated on Me." He gave them another hit, "I'm In Love with A Girl." This being the current single, he nailed it.
These hits were followed with a few forgettable songs which seemed to blend together. The crowd grew bored and people began to mingle by the bar. Of course I was still paying attention and I caught one of the cheesiest concert moments ever. He thanked the crowd for all they had done for him and then sang "I Have You To Thank."
On its own it's sort of sweet send up to the one you love. In this context of how he introduced the song? It made me gag.

Photo by Joe Koch

He "ended" the show with his biggest hit, "I Don't Wanna Be."As the song wound down, Gavin climbed onto his piano, grabbed a hold of the stage and hung there swinging back and forth. They exited for a few minutes, but nobody was fooled. The encore, of course, was still to come. For the encore Gavin came out alone and sat solemnly at his shiny piano and delivered the best moment of the night. By know it was dark out and the stars were bright. His voice cracked and his piano moaned. He was brilliant as he took a free-form approach to "Chariot." I loved it, the crowd loved it and Gavin loved performing it.
Upon finishing the song he invited everyone to share a drink with him after the show.
Gavin Degraw writes great pop songs that are easy to listen to on CD but he has enough charisma to carry the crowd through the whole show.

For more info go to: www.gavindegraw.com/