Throughout most of their show at the in Boulder Sunday night, and seemed to be filled with as much admiration for each other’s talents as the audience was. Throughout nearly two and a half hours, the two delivered a show that brought out the best of Americana, folk and country.
The format of the show had Hiatt and Lovett alternating songs, with the two discussing seemingly random topics in between. Those discussions often served to tie each song together. Hiatt opened the show with “Perfectly Good Guitar,” his indictment of self-indulgent rock stars who show little respect for their instruments. Lovett then asked Hiatt about when he knew he wanted to play guitar, and Hiatt told a story about listening to Elvis Presley records and pretending to play the guitar on a tennis racket. That segued into Lovett delivering “Skinny Legs,” a song about someone feeling jealous of a boy who plays guitar and has a car and a girlfriend.
From there, they went more on a car theme, as Hiatt played “Thunderbird” and followed with Lovett’s “Pontiac” and Hiatt’s “Tennessee Plates.”
Though it might have seemed that there was structure to the set, the two went onstage sans setlist, playing what they felt at the moment. Hiatt also took a few requests from the crowd, including a song that Lovett requested that Hiatt could only play one verse of before he forgot it, and “Cry Love,” which a woman in the audience screamed for.
One of the interesting things about seeing the two onstage together, stripped down, is their differing talents on the guitar. Lovett is a brilliant fingerpicker, something he showcased on “Her First Mistake.” Hiatt has more of a blues rock flatpicking style, and he added a great rock-style solo on Lovett’s “My Baby Don’t Tolerate,” one of the few times the two actually played together during the evening.
Hiatt also showcased an almost Norman Blake-like Appalachian flatpicking sensibility on “Adios to California,” from his forthcoming album, and he dedicated “Memphis in the Meantime” to Clarence Clemons, who died on Saturday.
As the show progressed, you could hear more of the brewing rainstorm outside, with thunder causing both Hiatt and Lovett to pause semi-dramatically. The two matched the outdoor fireworks on the set-closing “If I Had a Boat,” which musically sounds somewhat like “Skinny Legs,” bringing the show full circle.
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Candace Horgan is a Denver freelance writer/photographer and regular contributor to Reverb. When not writing and shooting, she plays guitar and violin in Denver band .
