A promise of a high-energy show is a cliche more often stated than fulfilled. When Ron Pope gave this same promise for his March 6 Phoenix show when I interviewed him the preceding Thursday, I took it as a passive statement and a decent quote. After all, how could a man turn his largely acoustic-based fame into engaging entertainment? This was a question I sought an answer to — an answer I eventually found.
Observing the Crescent Ballroom when I arrived at the concert, I was less impressed than I expected to be at a sold-out show. As bodies steadily packed the room, the audience took their positions and chatted in their own private bubbles. Faces were turned upward to greet openers Truett and Jonathan Tyler, but despite the multitalented musicians’ charming, noteworthy sets, the room was loud with conversation, distracting from the interactive talent onstage.
I wasn’t quite sure what failed to fully captivate the audience. The openers provided fantastic performances and did not ignore the presence of the audience. But the excessively casual atmosphere of the room during the opening sets made the performers appear unknown, rather than as touring artists. It felt like the audience stumbled into a bar and decided to stay for the night’s act, which they happened to enjoy.
But things changed when Ron Pope & the Nighthawks were cheered onstage, immediately presenting flawless harmonies before blasting into the jazzy energy of “Hell or High Water.” The music took over the Crescent and a performer truly felt big, for the first time of the night.
The expansive performance was further emphasized as the band played “Tears of Blood.” There was completeness to the way the many guitars clicked with every other element onstage. Each member understood how to captivate the audience through eye contact and genuinely joyful expressions.
With some of the Nighthawks making drastic changes in the instruments they played — from trumpet to keyboard, keyboard to guitar and more — this was also the first of many times the band would prove its immense talent. The only downfall was that the instruments often drowned out the vocals during the song, but the problem of unbalanced volumes never repeated itself during the rest of the set.
Following “Tears of Blood” was one of the most instrumentally balanced songs of the night, “Southern Cross.” This could only be topped by a performance of “White River Junction,” in which the lack of a crescendo toward the bridge of the song gained effectiveness live, immediately propelling the set from calm whispers of “cocaine, cocaine, cocaine” into a strong, energetic force.
Though the Nighthawks added their own flavors into songs from Pope’s soloist days, the vocalist left room for a few of his singles, including “Fireflies,” to be played as originally recorded without the band.
These moving, familiar performances soon ended, but another classic song was soon performed. After Pope gave an amusing, well-told narrative about his long history with Truett, he brought the Nighthawks and Jonathan Tyler back onstage to perform a cover of “Ooh La La” by The Faces with him and Truett. The cover, played with a single acoustic guitar and bits of harmonica, was flawless due to the minimalistic techniques paired with strong vocal additions from each person onstage. The audience, following Pope’s instruction, was pin-drop silent, allowing for an extremely memorable moment to be made.
Of course, ending the concert was a performance of Pope’s timeless song, “A Drop in the Ocean,” played with a full band. With the keyboard merely complementing the music, rather than driving it (as in the original recordings), the audience was able to dance along during the peak of their excitement and sing along to every word with passion. No encore was needed because the perfect ending was already given.
By the end of the concert, the same seven members of Ron Pope & the Nighthawks played instruments ranging from saxophone to banjo and from accordion to steel pedal guitar. Pope was already a powerful songwriter, but in a live performance setting, all of the band members proved themselves to be innovators. They understood the difference between making music for records and creating entertainment for fans. This was how acoustic music just became a sliver of an engaging night of fast-paced fun.
Contact the columnist at Emily.Liu@asu.edu
