Here’s my review of the Thursday show:
Jimmy Buffett kicked off his annual Labor day weekend shows at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield MA on Thursday night. This years tour is called the “Tiki Time” tour and the theme from right off was to take you away to a Hawaiian island for the night. Buffett once again proves why his show is one of the toughest tickets to get. He knows how to put together a complete entertaining show featuring great music, crowd participation, dancers, video clips, all revolving around the central “Tiki Time” theme.
The show began with a lively drum intro featuring four hula dancers (Heather and Julia along with 2 male dancers) and a fire twirler. It made you feel as though you were on an tropical island sitting back sipping a few drinks and watching the natives put on the nightly show. The stage props included palm trees, a Tiki bar, Tiki torches, and two large Tiki gods in front of backdrop that included a huge round bamboo “Tiki Time” sign.
Buffett got the show started with a cover of Johnny Clegg’s “Great Heart”, an upbeat song influenced heavily with African drum beats. The next song, “Saxophones”, featured the horn section, TC Mitchell, Amy Lee, and John Lovell. During the song Jimmy made reference to a recent visit to the Chicken Box on Nantucket.
The set list included a variety of songs from Buffett’s 30+ year career. This year’s tour included all of the fan favorite classics that he usually does along with several songs not often played. A reggae version of “In the Shelter” had the fans dancing along and featured a memorable solo by lead guitarist Peter Mayer. Coral Reeferette Tina Gullickson also joined in on acoustic guitar. “The Natives are Restless” featured the two talking Tiki Gods. The huge Tiki idols also made it known how they liked their Cheeseburgers served “I like mine with lettuce and tomatoes, Heinz 57 sauce …”.
The biggest crowd response came during the song, “It’s Five O’clock Somewhere”, his number one country duet with Alan Jackson. Coral Reefer Mac McAnally filled in nicely on Alan’s verses. The drinking and escape from a day at work song has very quickly become a fan favorite.
At intermission there was video called “Meet Me in Margaritaville” that featured stops at some of Buffett’s Margaritaville restaurants including Key West. There were many video clips during the concert including shots of Jimmy’s plane and the Coast Guard tall ship he was on last year along with the usual tailgate video.
The acoustic set featured several songs, including John Hiatt’s “Thank god the Tiki Bar is Open” complete with a Tiki Bar serving Margaritaville tequila. Mac McAnally and Jimmy also did an acoustic version of “Mental Floss” and “It’s My Job”. For a change of pace, Buffett did a Polynesian version of “Why Don’t We Get Drunk” with many members of the band strumming along on ukuleles.
Buffett was in touch with the crowd from the start. He joked that this is not the Kiss concert, talked about getting stung by a Portuguese man-o-war, mentioned the cool crisp New England weather, and he asked to the lawn section to look up in the sky for Mars. During one song he also referenced the traffic problems caused by the PGA tournament.
During the encore Buffett played the fan favorite “Fins” which had two huge hands coming out behind the band. That was followed by the crowd dancing along to Frankie Ford’s “Sea Cruise”. For the final song Jimmy came back for an acoustic solo version of “Changing Channels”. This concert proves why there’s no better way to finish the long hot summer than a night at the Tiki Bar with Buffett.