September 09
The Riverside Th..
Live review: Rogue Wave @ the Fox Theatre
Zach Rogue seems like the guardedly affable kind of guy who would be perfectly content regaling his band’s (mostly) chill fans in Boulder’s Fox Theatre with 90 solid minutes of tight, up-tempo pop songs – and then disappearing, without all the trappings and nonsense that can go along with being a rock star.
It’s not his fault he looks like Jude Law.
But if some drunk young female disciple wants to worship at your feet and scream variations of, “I love yoooooou,” and, “It’s my birrrrrthday,” 247 times in the span of your 18 songs, as if personally willing this magical night to be just about the two of you … and you’re both the lead singer and the object of all this intensely sweet affection … well then, there’s just not enough facial scruff in the world for you to hide behind.
It was funny for the rest of us, though. Poor guy.
View a full photo gallery of this concert here.
This was clearly the kind of devoted fangirl who would borrow a telephone company’s cherry-picker crane just to get an up-close look at Rogue in concert if she had to – which is exactly what Jennifer Aniston’s character did in the cheesiest scene of the recent romantic comedy, “Love Happens.”
The frontman of Oakland’s Rogue Wave seemed fairly non-plussed and experienced with this very type of idolatry, wearing a humble demeanor, a bemused smirk – and a wedding ring – throughout what proved to be a most pleasing Tuesday evening.
Rogue Wave’s set was confidently weighted toward the band’s fourth release, “Permalight,” a record as irresistible as the band itself. A band that, for all the success that has come to it over the past six years, seems not all that removed from the gang of humble, hairy guys who played in front of about 20 of us in the University of Colorado’s Club 156 in 2005.
Rogue Wave is touring as a five-piece that leans heavily on synthesizer, an impressive array of rotating guitar types and, whenever possible, communal percussion. That and Rogue’s muted charisma.
“Permalight” has been hailed as a cerebral, textured departure for Rogue Wave, and though this night was not the time or place to think too hard on the band’s lyrics – they just weren’t that easily decipherable even if you tried – the feeling was evident enough behind songs like “I’ll Never Leave You,” a tune Rogue described as being about loving something more than yourself.
Rogue Wave hasn’t played here since opening for Jack Johnson at Red Rocks two years ago. So it says it all about where they are now that they can now play eight new tracks – six right off the top – and never come close to playing their most-known and best-loved single, “Endless Shovel,” all night. And no one seemed to mind, because the entire set was up to the task.
The first non-“Permalight” song of the night was No. 7: “Chicago X12,” from “Asleep at Heaven’s Gate.” Unexpected highlights included “Eyes” from the film “Just Friends,” and “Cheaper Than Therapy,” from the fundraiser record, “Musicians for Minneapolis.” “Bird on a Wire” made me forget Leonard Cohen for three minutes, which is saying something, and “We Will Make a Song Destroy” brought with it some pretty furious drumming from Patrick Spurgeon. The encore – nearing 1:15 in the Wednesday morn – ended with 10 various players gathered on the stage to bounce along to the new record’s title track.
To many, Rogue Wave is still “the band that sounds like The Shins.” But if anything, the Zach Rogue of 2010 evokes more the voice of The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy (only far less annoying); and his band now more closely approaches the atmospheric richness of My Morning Jacket.
The evening could be fairly described as one of casual, aloof pleasure with a band that seems to be emerging joyously from some period of sadness. And they’ve now offered up a new record, and an accompanying concert, that argue in favor of living in the present for at least this one fleeting moment in our lives.
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