Incubus at Festival Pier, Philadelphia, PA; August 8, 2009

Last night I took the girlfriend to see her favorite band in the universe, Incubus, play the Festival Pier in Philadelphia in support of their Greatest Hits/B-Sides Collection Monuments and Melodies. Across their two hour set, Brandon Boyd and company played an unusual, unexpected set, but despite some notably missing hits and fan favorites, the band put on one of the most impressive, lively shows I’ve seen in recent memory.

After opening act The Duke Spirit took the stage for an energetic, upbeat set riddled with utterly forgettable tracks, Incubus took the stage to a groundswell of excitement from the crowd in the first dozen rows. Standing about a half dozen rows from the stage, my girlfriend and the rest of our party (we ran into two of her friends when we arrived at the Pier) ultimately retreated to about 20 or so rows back as a result of behavior from the crowd best described as chaotic (One day soon I’ll write a piece detailing the nature of rock concert crowds, moshpits, and whatever the hell happened at this Incubus concert). Suffice it to say, the synergy between the band and the crowd was unlike anything I’ve seen at other concerts. After a number of songs to which the crowd knew every word, frontman Brandon Boyd stood back and let the crowd take over numerous times. More telling was the fact that after these songs, as the crowd cheered and showed their appreciation, so too did Boyd, standing back and appluading the crowd for their enthusiasm. Indeed, Incubus created a connection with the crowd that lasted through every lyric, note and beat of their performance. Additionally, Incubus’s set was far more than just live versions of favorite songs from albums. Boyd, guitarist Mike Einziger and drummer Jose Pasillas are adept at finding the hidden crevices in their songs where new moments can exist that allow the music to take on a life of its own outside the realm of what was recorded to CD. Most notably, the band extended Light Grenades ballad “Dig” into a six minute jam session that stretched the boundaries of the song far more than its recorded version could imagine. Likewise every song seemed to have a clear beginning, middle and end; Incubus let each new track in the set build up to their natural boiling point, at which point they’d come booming into its opening chords.

That said, there was something vaguely incomplete about the band’s show last night. The band’s current hit single “Black Heart Inertia” was conspicuously missing from the set, as well as most of the “new” tracks from Monuments and Melodies; the only song from the rarities side of that album was the band’s finale, their cover of Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy”. I was disappointed that certain fan favorites and rarities like “Earth to Bella, Pt. 1″ and “Look Alive” were left out of the set list. Having said that, seeing Incubus perform up close is an experience unique to the other acts I’ve seen live over the last year, and in spite of whatever faults might have existed in last night’s performance, Incubus still made a mark as one of the most exciting and invigorating bands I’ve seen take the stage.

Setlist: Incubus @ Festival Pier Penn’s Landing, Philadelphia, PA; August 8, 2009

Pardon Me
Nice To Know You
Anna Molly
Stellar
Megalomaniac
Circles
Love Hurts
Just A Phase

Acoustic Set
Drive
Talk Shows on Mute
Dig

Redefine
Warning
Oil and Water
Quicksand
A Kiss to Send Us Off
Wish You Were Here
Aqueous Transmission

Encore
The Warmth
A Crow Left of the Murder
Let’s Go Crazy (Prince Cover)

I had to double check my set list since I didn’t know the entirety of Incubus’s catalog. Am I out of the loop or does no one else know about setlist.fm? It’s a wiki site where people can post concert setlists from any/all concerts they attend. Pretty awesome.

==TJ==

Advertisement