Switchfoot
fleshes out its '90s retro rock with plenty of resolve
Switchfoot/Eisley/Augustana
The Roxy, Boston, Massachusetts
November 2, 2005
by Marc Hirsh
[photos taken by Marc Hirsh]
originally published in
The Boston Globe, November 4, 2005
If the entire performance vocabulary of Switchfoot frontman Jonathan Foreman seems cribbed from countless forebears, he at least deserves credit for recognizing the result he wants and how to reach it. And make no mistake: if Foreman, with his “How is the city feeling tonight?” banter and self-important posturing, acted like a big rock star at the Roxy on Wednesday, that’s because right then and there, he was.
Riddled with clichés as it was, Foreman’s stage presence was entirely fitting in with the band’s material, which seemingly pilfered from 1990s mainstream alternative both good and bad. “The Shadow Proves The Sunshine” had an airiness similar to latter-day U2, and the swinging, fractured “Company Car” got deliriously lost chasing its own tail like some of Ben Folds’s best work. But most of Switchfoot’s songs sounded like a hybrid of Bush and Matchbox 20, with a healthy dollop of Creed added for good measure.
If those bands haven’t quite stood the test of time, they certainly hit big during their moments in the sun, and Switchfoot’s borrowings proved equally effective. The downtempo, stadium-sized “This Is Your Life” was practically designed to be a lighter-waving singalong anthem, while “The Shadow Proves The Sunshine” and “Meant To Live” were injected with an overinflated sense of importance. That reached its zenith when Foreman compared “Politicians” to both “Imagine” and a prayer, but ultimately, Switchfoot had a job to do, and the hooks in songs like “Stars” and “Easier Than Love” did their work.
With a much less rigid approach to performance,
second-billed Eisley showcased numbers from this year’s wonderful Room Noises alongside
the odd obscurity
culled from their eight-year existence. Like an expansion of the ideas
that
Belly explored on King, the four
Dupree siblings and cousin/new bass player Garron presented a lyrical
and
melodic dreamworld with superb clarity. On “Mr. Pine” and the gorgeous
“Memories,” guitarist Sherri and her keyboard-playing sister Stacy
tugged and
pulled at each other’s vocals, playing off of one another as often as
they fell
into harmony. But it was sister Chauntelle who captured the spirit of
Eisley’s set
as she stood off to the side playing her guitar and singing to herself
without
the benefit of a microphone, caught up as the music lifted and lifted.
Openers Augustana played a half-hour set of nondescript, mechanically earnest WB-ready rock full of grungy but ringing guitars and big piano ballads.
