Review - Hootie & the Blowfish with the Barenaked Ladies @ Shoreline (6/29/19)

Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish @ Shoreline (Photo: Kevin Keating)

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Cracked Rear View (iTunes), Hootie and the Blowfish pulled into Mountain View last night for a stop over on their 2019 Group Therapy Tour at the Shoreline Amphitheater with show openers, Barenaked Ladies. It's been at least 10 years since Darius Rucker has performed with the band -- after breaking out on his own solo country career -- and over 15 years since their last studio album. But the band's back together and is even due for a new album at some point later this year. In the meantime, they've hit the road on a 44 city tour that winds across the States through the end of September.

First-up last night were the Barenaked Ladies who hit the stage promptly at 7:30pm and launched right into their hits. Lead singer, Ed Robertson, joked about a quarter of the way through the set that he was pretty good at reading an audience, and could tell that the assembled crowd was confident that they could play hit after hit, but what the crowd really wanted, was for the band to take a risk and play a deep cut from their new album. The band went on to play "Lookin' Up", before getting back to the hits we all knew -- including "If I had $1,000,000" and the theme to the TV show, "The Big Bang Theory."

Ed Robertson & Jim Creeggan of the Barenaked Ladies @ Shoreline (Photo: Kevin Keating)

At another time during their set, Ed spoke about how the band's been around for over 30 years, and that their very first hit came from an independently release cassette tape, and how you could stick a pencil in the hole, and spin it around to rewind the tape so you could listen to the song over again. Then he dedicated the next song, "Brian Wilson", to all the people in the audience who were over 30 years old... And then also dedicated the song to all the people in the audience under 30 years old. Ha!

The band closed out their set with covers of two songs from some of the biggest bands in the world, Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" and Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust." It was a solid hour of hits and jokes from BNL.

Mark Bryan & Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish @ Shoreline (Photo: Kevin Keating)

After a 30 minute break, Hootie and the Blowfish took the stage and the crowd immediately rose to their feet -- and they'd stay that way for the duration of their 2-hour set. And like the Barenaked Ladies, Hootie also played all their hits and more. Darius reminisced about playing here back at the 1995 Bridge School Benefit and where Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders asked him after their acoustic set if they write all their own songs? Darius replied that they did, and she told him to always play their hits. It was clearly the theme of the night, where both these bands were taking all of us on a nostalgic trip back memory lane to when most of us were in high school or college.

With all the feel-good music going on, there was nearly a serious accident when lead guitarist, Mark Bryan, stumbled off the drum riser during "Running From an Angel" and landed wrong, nearly breaking or spraining his ankle. He finished the song playing on his knees, before getting up and slowly walking across the stage to swap guitars. Darius joked with Mark and told him to 'stop breaking shit' for which Mark responded with 'yeah, like my fucking ankle.' Luckily, he seemed to be OK and kept playing through the remainder of the show.

Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish @ Shoreline (Photo: Kevin Keating)

Having looked over recent setlists, the one minor difference in the setlist here at Shoreline was how they closed their main set. Recently, they've been playing the Beatles cover "With a Little Help From Your Friends" and where the Barenaked Ladies would join them on stage. But last night, Darius commented how they were inspired by all the pictures of Bill Graham backstage and decided to change things up with Stephen Stills "Love the One You're With."

The band sounded great, and you would have never guessed that so much time has transpired between the last time they went out on tour together. Darius' vocals didn't miss a note, and his soulful, country twang was a blast to hear live with the Blowfish again.

Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish @ Shoreline (Photo: Kevin Keating)

Be sure to check their tour schedule for their remaining dates and catch this show. It's a fun one that you'll be glad you did. Thanks for reading and be sure to follow us across our social feeds for more pictures, concert announcements and news here: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter