About half of the audience received the memo to don a sailor’s cap to the Leader Bank Pavilion on August 5th to see Yacht Rock Revue, a band who mostly play covers, but also pepper their setlist with original music.
Whilst starting as tribute/cover band, Yacht Rock Revue, originally hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, has since self-described as “self-actualized,” largely in part due to their most recent album, Hot Dads in Tight Jeans, that doubles down on their jocular spirit and allegiance to irony. More importantly however, is the fact that their most recent album is all original music. Interestingly, only two originals made it into the August 5th setlist. As audience member Pam stated: “We’re not here to hear their originals.” Looking around the packed theater, Pam’s words rang true as the sing along stopped once the originals started, and audience members chose those moments in the set to get another beer or go to the bathroom.
For someone who doesn’t have a penchant for water transportation of any kind or pine for a life at sea, there were two originals among a setlist of Boz Scaggs, Fleetwood Mac, Robbie Dupree, and others that stood out. The first, “Step,” is a synth-driven, musing pop song that doesn’t lean hard on feel-good riffs or lyrics but remains a hypnotic, catchy tune that still packs a punch. “Bad Tequila,” with its hilariously simple premise and its infectious optimism is a dreamy, synthwave, lighter-brandishing anthem, replete with reverb-laden saxophone solos.
The covers that were presented were all brilliantly played by obviously talented musicians (the organ player also doubled on saxophone, flute, and fife), but the edgy humor that this lineup of musicians possess was usurped by the nostalgia fix that the covers provide. The band’s sound was retro and tight. They had unrelenting beats, punchy starts and endings, and choreographed dance moves. The energy was high, and the onstage antics were infectious and happy-making. Their song choice draws a certain nostalgia-hungry crowd, who yell in excitement at that first two-bar fix of an instantly recognizable song. However, paired with their image and projected direction, that of original music, often tongue in cheek, especially the Hot Dad comedy, you might expect to see a younger, high-waisted jeans and round spectacle crowd.
What does shine through is that they love Boston (with one band member who wore a polyester button-up picturing an artistic depiction of the Boston Tea Party), and that Boston loves them with an almost cult-like fervor. That praise was well-deserved as this concert was certainly not a collection of feel-good songs that coasted on their sentimentality, but rather were powerhouses in themselves. They compelled you to move. Multiple band members sang different tunes, backup singers provided lush vocal harmonies, and there was instrumental wizardry abound. The musicians were giving it their all and at times you couldn’t help but belt out some Robbie Dupree with them. Their confidence, their “unashamed torch-bear[ing] of lite rock,” as they themselves have put it, was inspiring. Their musical dexterity kept them sounding harmonious and fresh, but where the nugget of dissonance persisted was in that “self-actualization.”
It was as if the band were being pulled in two different directions, one in which they stick to the covers and keep the audience singing along, and one in which they pursue their original songs, risk losing their base, but potentially tap into a whole new market. There were so many opportunities, especially in the latter half of the concert, where some of their excellent, cheeky, yet rip roaring pop rock originals (“Change of Scene,” “Another Song About California,” and “Big Bang” are a couple standouts from the new album of originals) could have made an appearance and found many appreciators, yacht or not.