Jason Collett at Lee’s; Thursday March 6, 2008

Jason Collett at Lee’s; Thursday March 6, 2008.

The 6ixty 8ights opened up for Jason Collett. A pop rock band that has incredible potential but they just do not maintain any consistency within their music. The first half of their set had a ridiculous Beatles influence to it, with the “ooohs” and the “sha lalas”, but they lost that by the end. They put a lot into it but they just didn’t get me. Jason Collett was incredible!!! He opened up with a new tune “Roll on Oblivion” which is also the opener to his new album as well. He played nearly the entire new album ‘Here’s to Being Here’, which was nice because it has a completely different vibe from the other albums. He also played a ton off ‘Idols of Exile’ but completely ignored ‘Motor Motel’. The new album is incredibly accessible, anyone can like it listening to it. It flows really nice. Quite often Collett merges off into radio friendly tunes which drives me kind of nuts. I like his sound in all its forms, more upbeat or down. But some songs kind of go in the wrong direction, for instance, off ‘Idols of Exile’, “Feral Republic” has a ridiculously annoying guitar riff, similar to “Charlyn, Angel of Kensington”. I mean it’s cool he name drops but the actual music to that song is atrocious. He played both, musically they sounded perfect, but it’s just not my cup of tea. There is always one song that I’m dying for him to play, but I know he never will… that being “Almost Summer”. A slow tune about hook-ups and heart aches. Collett can capture such an angst even though he’s pushing his 40s soon, or is already. He writes about emotions that his son is likely experiencing right now, but he does it in such a way that it comes incredibly natural to him, it fits. The other song I really wanted to hear live is “Waiting for the World” a tune he wrote for a person he knew that was serving as a soldier in the war recently, in Afghanistan or Iraq. At the end of the recorded version of “Waiting For the World” it just sort of lags--an instrumental bit, it’s really nice and slow. I remember three years ago I saw him at Lee’s when I needed a fake ID and he played this tune and dedicated it to his friend, it was nice. That very show KT Tunstall opened up for him at Lee’s, about a month later everyone knew her as the “oooh ooo” girl, with her smash hit “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree”, incredible, just incredible!Collett writes really nice tunes but he maintains a certain crass presence when he plays. It’s a really youth invigorating spirit that so few older musicians can keep as they age. It might just be because he’s incredible good looking. Perhaps.He kept pushing the vinyl version of his new album because the record itself was hot pink. He wanted to change his name to “Hot Pink” instead of his name, it didn’t mull over well with the crowd, the sold out crowd. It was intense, too much I’d say, it was really sweaty, uncomfortably. A feel that the Dakota wonderfully lacked so well. The Dakota shows were so tight, an intimacy that makes Lee’s Palace feel like the ACC, I wondered where all those people were for the Dakota shows, oh well, better off.He made a new addition to his band within the last year, Sloan keyboardist extraordinaire. Instead of the primarily synth additions he implements keys, real piano! Throughout. It gives his music a really nice 1920s piano feel like the ones you’d see in an old country-western film. Unfortunately in such a loud set venue the piano is really drowned out. The Dakota caught this well. 8/10, Jason Collett always satisfies.

March 8, 2009