Our writer Madeline Christy reviews Hootie and the Blowfish’s performance at Hammersmith Apollo earlier this month.
A sold out tour after an eleven year hiatus? That’s the power of Hootie and the Blowfish. The highly anticipated hangar pop band of the 90s returned to Hammersmith early this month to celebrate their plans of releasing new music, Imperfect Circle, which will be available to stream this Friday. It is hard to put into words the power of a Hootie show, delivered in its own unique way as a tour de force of energy and nostalgia in equal measure. Although Darius Rucker has toured the UK recently – and of course, will be headlining C2C in March – it was sensational to witness the band live in its entirety for the first time in a long time.
In typical Hootie style, the group don’t quite do it like everybody else. Instead of opening their reunion show with a memorable hit, such as ‘Hold My Hand’, they opt for their debut album’s opener ‘Hannah Jane’. The song addresses one of, front man, Darius Rucker’s friends who fell in love in high school and is no longer in the picture. The song seems to come full circle, from reflecting loss to now celebrating a 15 year absence from London. While it divides the OG fans from the new, either way the track proved the power of the band to capture an audience from the off, surprising and delighting fans, and was a reminder of the heyday of the band and just how little they have lost in the interim years. The band returned together like a glove, and even when performing Darius’ solo material, it was a true Hootie performance rather than a Darius Rucker show – truly a powerful thing to hit.
While looking to see which members of the original line up have made it into the group we instead stumble into Looking for Lucky, the bands fifty studio album released back in 2005. At the time of the release the Chicago Tribune dealt the album as ‘unfavourable’, but lead guitarist , Mark Bryan, got the last laugh as the entire Eventim Apollo shook to the percussive drive of the song.
During the interval before the show, there were hums of a potential Keith Urban appearance at the Brad Paisley show just down the Thames at The O2. The sight of Urban then, strolling onto stage and hugging Darius before shredding into Sir Mack Rice’s Mustang Sally, surprised and delighted fans in equal measure. It added an element of funk to what is now a family show; with generations knowing the band from Cracked Rear View, Rucker’s ‘Wagon Wheel’, or even that one ‘work of a Blowfish’ reference in friends. The band also covered 54-40’s ‘I Go Blinded,’ they did for the soundtrack of Friends in 1996. Taking on a more blue mood and stage lighting, the band revisited ‘Sad Caper’, a track borne somewhere between grunge and Garth, showcasing a murkier side to the usually sugary band. We were reminded of Bryan’s multi-instrumentalism as he not only showed us his lap steel guitar tapestries but also stitched in some mandolin. Whilst, the group are a frontal for bright and campfire witty songs, it’s hard to forget about the versatility and vulnerability that they have to offer – ‘Not Even For The Trees’ almost slows down time.
You don’t quite remember how or when you learnt the words, but ‘Hold My Hand’ is the go to safe song for an ultimate sing song and hit with the audience. The retelling of the story’s inspiration is also a marker of just how well the band know each other, harking back to a college crush of Soni’s that Darius had his eye on. ‘Hold My Hand’ has been a staple of Darius’ shows for years, so to see it elevated with the accompaniment of the entire band brought it to an entirely different level, and the crowd truly felt that – belting back every breath to every line.
Tomorrow (November 1st) will mark the release of the band’s new album Imperfect Circle, and they were able to try out a few of the tracks on the live audience that they held in the palm of tier hand. First up was ‘Rollin’ that miraculously the die-hard fans already seemed to know word perfect – it’s a catchy number that is sure to be a big hit, appealing to both Hootie and Darius fans in equal measure. Also included in the set list was new track ‘Miss California’ that was a perfect introduction to Imperfect Circle.
It is clear that the band know their audience, as well as the audience know them, crafting an astute and clever set list, sprinkled with covers including R.E.M.’s ‘Losing My Religion’ and ‘Led Zeppelin’s ‘Hey Hey What Can I Do’ that exactly matched the Hootie fan-base. In the rest of the set, a powerful moment was created with ‘Let Her Cry’ – a song that clearly means a lot to the band.
The set culminated in the perennially popular ‘Wagon Wheel’ – much as that song is greeted with rapture in Darius’ set, so too was it here. In the years the band have spent apart and Darius has pursued a solo career, little ground has been lost. The band are as strong together as they are apart and it is something truly special when the band is greater than the sum of their parts. They are a truly giving band to their audience, showing as much appreciation to their fans as the fans do to them and it was truly a spectacle to see them live at the Apollo.
