JOE BREENreviews Jackson Browne at the Olympia Theatre.
American singer/songwriter Jackson Browne looked a mite weary when he led his band onto the stage on Monday night for the first of two well-attended consecutive concerts at the Olympia Theatre. The strain of travelling from Australia had obviously taken its toll and for the first half of the 150-minute set his voice seemed shakey while the band sounded a little sluggish.
It was a tale of two halves because, having changed his sweater to avoid clashing with his back-up singer and, presumably, dousing his face with cold water to clear his jetlag, he and the six-piece band were more engaged after the interval with a series of highlights drawn from his long career.
Browne turned 60 last September and marked this milestone with Time the Conqueror, his first album since 2002 and his best for some time. He spliced tracks from it with nuggets from his classic albums, particularly those from the late 1970s when he personified the sensitive Californian singer-songwriter at a time when for many that state was a Mecca for music.
But time moves on and Browne drifted from the centre of attention to the illustrious periphery, releasing occasional albums and championing various left-leaning causes. Unlike some he has always been at ease with the bulk of his back catalogue, happy to revisit songs that are anchored to fans' heart and memories. But the passing of time gives songs such as The Pretender, Something Fine, Fountain of Sorrowand Sky Blue and Blackan elegiac quality above and beyond their original introspection.
His new material is similarly inquiring but his activism has given him a more direct voice such as the light-fingered agitprop of Going Down to Cubaor the more pointed Where Were You, both aimed at the Bush administration. He is still able to write a beautiful tune, as Giving That Heaven Awayshowed with its softly insistent soulful touches embossed by Jeff Young's Hammond organ and Mark Goldenberg's guitar.
They finished with the apt but game Running on Emptybefore leaving a happy audience sated with Before the Deluge. Not so much a night to remember; rather a reminder of how good he can be.
