For the second time in three months, Anders Osborne brought his powerful guitar sounds to Chicago, this time to the clubby, upscale Park West. In contrast to the more staid crowd at his last appearance at SPACE in Evanston, this crowd skewed younger, perhaps as a result of the location as well as the band sharing the bill: Tea Leaf Green. The San Francisco quintet opened the evening with a 90 minute set that climaxed with Osborne joining them onstage for their final tunes of the evening "Been So Long" and "Garden III".
With the spirit of collaboration in the air, Anders invited Tea Leaf Green's Reed Mathis and Trevor Garrod onstage for "Ya Ya" after opening the show with "Taking Its Toll>Knocking on Heaven's Door>Taking Its Toll" and "Cry You a River". A long, jammy excursion unfolded that gave the usual power trio added texture with the bass and keyboard filling in space. Both Garrod and Mathis stayed out for "Burning on the Inside" and "I Got Your Heart" before TLG guitarist Josh Clark replaced Mathis onstage for the closer "Black Tar". For an encore, the ever gracious headliner brought out all of TLG for the spirited New Orleans-style closer "Junco Partner".
Overall, Anders' loose yet forceful style played well in this room. His sound has a certain physicality -- it could be felt in every part of the body -- the sheer power of his band's playing is something that needs to be experienced up close. Drummer Eric Bolivar and bassist Carl Dufresne created a deep pocket for Osborne to explore tones and textures in his unique style. The addition of the TLG players, most notably Garrod, added some unexpected but welcome texture to some of Osborne's catalog that should hold up upon additional listening.
Anders Osborne
Park West - Chicago, ILONE SET
Love is Taking its Toll> Knocking on Heaven's Door > Love is Taking its Toll, Boxes, Bills, & Pain, Ya Ya *, Burning on the Inside*, I Got Your Heart*, Black Tar#
ENCORE
Junco Partner @* w/Reed Mathis, Trevor Garrod (TLG), # w/ Josh Clark, Trevor Garrod (TLG), @w/ all members of Tea Leaf Green
Tea Leaf Green
Park West - Chicago, ILONE SET
Germinating Seed, Innocent, Jubilee, All Washed Up, Loony Bin, Devil's Pay, Fallen Angel, Keeping the Faith, Ride Together, Been So Long *, Garden III*
* with Anders Osborne