Jimmy Buffett does something few other singer-songwriters can do onstage: have fun—boatloads of fun.
His infectious joy, along with his lengthy catalogue of raucous rockers and winsome ballads, kept tens of thousands of Parrotheads thoroughly entertained during his “This One’s For You Tour” stop Saturday night (July 26) at Detroit’s Comerica Park.
Backed by a stellar 11-piece band, Buffett smiled almost non-stop as he sang and played his way through 26 songs in the two-hour-and-ten-minute set. Wearing a purple T-shirt and pale yellow shorts, he danced and jumped around barefoot during fan favorites such as “Margaritaville,” “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” and “Fins,” then slowed the pace for such poignant ballads as “Come Monday,” “A Pirate Looks at 40,” and “Son of a Son of a Sailor.”
A concert highlight was a surprise walk-on by James Taylor, who strummed along with Buffett on acoustic guitars for the gently-rolling “Mexico” (Taylor was in town for a concert the next night at DTE Energy Music Theatre).
Buffett, 67, has created a cottage industry for escapism, singing songs that appeal to the pirate and beach bum in everyone. Doctors, nurses, lawyers, professors, blue collar or white collar—even journalists—cast off their inhibitions for a day and put on grass skirts, Hawaiian shirts, coconut bras (both men and women), and goofy hats festooned with parrots or shark fins or cheeseburgers.
The parking lots around Comerica opened at 7am for the 7:30pm show, and there were cars in line as early as 5am (the $40 per vehicle parking fee apparently did not deter). The most avid Parrotheads set up thatched-roof tiki bars, wading pools, inflatable palm trees, and sand on the asphalt, cracking open some cold ones or pouring their margaritas while blasting Buffett tracks all day long.
Buffett opened his show with a couple of cover tunes—“Summertime Blues” and “Brown Eyed Girl,” getting fans dancing from the get-go—before playing one of his own staples, “Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude.”
The song “Bama Breeze” included a lyric about Mick Jagger signing his name on a barroom wall (in the ladies’ bathroom stall), a timely selection considering Saturday’s show was held on Mick’s 71st birthday.
Buffett left briefly while Mac McAnnally—longtime Buffett band member and the Country Music Association’s musician of the year six times running—played a virtuosic solo on resonator guitar, then returned holding a red plastic cup aloft to toast the crowd. “I’ll never catch up to y’all, but I’ve refueled,” he said with a grin.
Buffett personalized the show by slipping in numerous references to Detroit, the Tigers, Michigan and Windsor. He mentioned that he played a small bar in Southfield in 1972, before he was a star, and said he married a woman from Michigan.
A massive video screen behind the stage, about 50 feet long by 25 feet high, lit up with vivid backdrops throughout the night, including scenes of flowing waterfalls, smoldering volcanoes, cheeseburgers, and a Michigan collage with a nod to the Red Wings, a Detroit-area map, and the Motor City’s Joe Louis “fist” statue.
Opening the night was a headliner in his own right, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Fogerty—the leader and creative force behind Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Fogerty, 69, was in top form, playing stinging lead guitar on hit after hit including “Green River” and “Old Man Down the Road.” He plucked a baseball-shaped guitar for “Centerfield” and was joined by Buffett for the backbeat shuffle of “Willie and the Poor Boys.”
Fogerty, whose voice and musicianship are unique bedrocks of American rock history, was accompanied by his son Shane on guitar throughout his 70-minute set, and the father-son duo tore it up with lightning-fast fretwork on uptempo hits such as “Fortunate Son” and “Up Around the Bend.”
Driving the band was the forceful rhythms of drum legend Kenny Aronoff, who kept the beat with all the power and subtlety of a howitzer.
If you missed the Detroit show or just crave more Creedence classics, you can catch Fogerty in action Wednesday night (July 30) when he headlines a concert at the Toledo Zoo.
One song Buffett didn’t play in Detroit was “Big Top,” but the tune contains a lyric that perfectly sums up Saturday’s event: “Just like Santa I come around once a year / Time to break out all of your party gear.”
From early Saturday morning until the last guitar chord faded around 11:30pm, it was Christmas in July for Jimmy’s legions of Parrotheads.
