{"id":5538,"date":"2019-09-30T10:14:28","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T15:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=5538"},"modified":"2019-12-17T20:09:03","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T01:09:03","slug":"review-shakey-graves-rockland-trust-bank-pavilion-9-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2019\/09\/30\/review-shakey-graves-rockland-trust-bank-pavilion-9-20\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Shakey Graves @ Rockland Trust Bank Pavilion 9\/20"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Caroline Bohnenberger<\/em><\/p>\n

On Friday, September 20th<\/sup>, \u201cAmericana\u201d indie artist Shakey Graves performed at Boston\u2019s Rockland Trust Bank Pavilion alongside the Philadelphia-based rock band Dr. Dog. Graves had the hefty responsibility of showcasing his unique sound and personality to a crowd made up of both his own devoted fans and Dr. Dog audience members who may not have been familiar with his work. And while this may have been daunting for any other artist, Graves seemed unbothered as he greeted the crowd with waves and high fives.<\/p>\n

The tone for the concert was set when Graves entered the stage alone, wearing a striped shirt and baseball cap and waving to his fans before proceeding to pick up one of the several guitars on his stand. He humbly introduced himself to the audience and was met with roaring applause before he proceeding to play \u201cWord of Mouth.\u201d Graves began the song with just his vocals and his acoustic-electric guitar, expressing the raw frustration of the song\u2019s lyrics. Halfway through the song, Graves also began to play a small bass drum and a tambourine with two foot pedals in addition to playing his guitar and singing. This musical feat illustrates the talent and artistry that Shakey Graves employs in both his studio albums and live performances, and surely helped Graves gain favorability from the Dr. Dog fans in attendance.<\/p>\n

Graves performed a variety of songs that displayed his versatile discography and his stylistic evolution from when he released his first EP, Roll The Bones<\/em>, in 2011. Graves\u2019 set intermixed songs from his Americana, country-rock roots, like \u201cBuilt to Roam,\u201d \u201cHard Wired,\u201d \u201cPansy Waltz,\u201d \u201cPay the Road,\u201d and \u201cDearly Departed,\u201d with the more \u201cvibe-y\u201d and alternative rock songs from his newest album Can\u2019t Wake Up<\/em>. The setlist provided the audience with a comprehensive portrait of who Shakey Graves is as an artist and a performer, especially as he continued to change what type of guitar he was playing to better fit the mood of each song.<\/p>\n

The setlist also gave Graves the opportunity to showcase his personality and natural charisma, as he began almost every song by sharing a personal anecdote or the song\u2019s backstory. Graves also would make small jokes in between songs, contributing to the laid-back attitude of the concert. While some Dr.Dog fans may have been unsure of Graves at first, nearly everyone in the audience was singing or clapping along to the show\u2019s encore, \u201cRoll The Bones,\u201d which was encouraged by Graves.<\/p>\n

Shakey Graves is an artist with expert songwriting and musical talents, which was featured perfectly in the show. But what makes a Graves concert truly unique is the connection that Graves himself establishes with the audience. Through the interactions that he shares with his audience straight from the start, Graves makes his shows feel less like a huge concert with hundreds of nameless fans, but a late-night get together with friends where music is played in between discussions of road trips and Selena Quintanilla (two very common topics of conversation for Graves). Not every musician is a performer, and not every performer is a musician. Shakey Graves is unequivocally both, adding his own brand of sincerity, friendliness, and gratitude to both of those titles.<\/p>\n