OWTK did it.
We actually made it out to a kid’s music event. With all the aches, pains and sickness streaking through our home over the past few months our presence at Saturday’s Justin Roberts concert was, itself, a minor miracle. One that nearly didn’t happen. We had to make an emergency stop at the pediatrician’s office for the Bear. But we made it to World Cafe Live in time for the 11:30 A.M. start, and more importantly, we think all is well with our oldest gal [large sigh of relief].
On this gorgeous Autumn morning, Roberts had with him two members of his band; Liam Davis on electric bass, keys, mouth flute, and (Willy was a) whale puppet, and Gerald Dowd on drums, Tony the puppet (from Ann Arbor, MI), 80’s soft rock vocals, and stand up (er, sit down) comedy.
As I’d thought and hoped, the set list was heavy on tracks from Roberts’ latest & greatest, “Jungle Gym”. From this album, we got “Gym Class Parachute”, “Trick or Treat”, “We Go Duck”, “Sleepoverland”, “Obsessed by Trucks” and “New Haircut”. All of it sounded fantastic, as did the hits from prior albums which included “Picture Day” from 2004’s “Way Out” (1st time we’ve heard this live), but not “Willy Was A Whale” (okay, by me).
Roberts broke a string on “Gym Class Parachute” and while he sat down in the center of the stage to restring and tune his acoustic axe, Gerald and Liam entertained the crowd with some witty banter and Phillies talk (the pair are huge baseball fans). Later, Roberts needed audience assistance with the lyrics in the 2nd verse of “Pop Fly”. It was another candid moment that makes he and his group all the more endearing and no less professional – hey, it happens to the best of ’em.
I can never get great photos inside World Cafe Live, the combination of the lightening and my ineptitude behind the lens yielded these:
and one video, for “Sleepoverland”:
*OWTK was provided with 4 complimentary tickets to this concert. The opinions expressed above are true and unbiased – no arm twisting took place in the review process.
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