Ray LaMontagne concert review

I went with a good friend and fellow music-lover to see Ray LaMontagne’s concert in Dallas on Friday night. We got to the venue with plenty of time to spare, so we walked around and had some dinner at a nice Italian place downtown before returning to the Majestic Theatre. We found our seats as opening act Leona Naess was a song or two into her set. She was a good opener for Ray, and her Sarah McLachlan-like voice and folksy low-key songs and melancholy lyrics made for a compelling performance. I may have to check out some of her albums.

Ray LaMontagne and his backing band took the stage just before 9:15 PM and launched into the upbeat “You Are The Best Thing”, the first track on his brand new album Gossip In The Grain. Naess joined the band for the fourth song, providing backing vocals on “I Still Care For You”, just as she did on the album version. In all, he played 7 of the album’s 10 songs, plus “Roses and Cigarettes”, a bonus track available with the deluxe edition of the album sold at the iTunes store. Regrettably, he played only 3 songs from his masterpiece album, 2006’s Till The Sun Turns Black, which was half the number he played from his 2004 debut Trouble. Some people in the audience called out for “Barfly” at one point, but to no avail. I was disappointed to not hear “Forever My Friend”, “Gone Away From Me”, “Sarah”, or “Till The Sun Turns Black”. Despite that, he put on a strong performance throughout the length of his 17 song set. He was accompanied by a capable group of musicians that included Ethan Johns on the drums. Johns has produced of all 3 of LaMontagne’s albums and is the son of legendary producer Glyn Johns, who produced The Who’s masterpiece Who’s Next (among other albums). Ray, as a vocalist, is incapable of mailing in a performance, and he sang all of the songs as strongly – or when the song required it, as softly – as he does on his albums.

About midway through the show, his band left the stage and he performed solo acoustic versions of “Burn” and “Winter Birds”, before the band returned for a rousing rendition of “Hey Me, Hey Mama”. The regular set closed three songs later with “Trouble”, and the band left the stage to a prolonged ovation. After a few minutes, they returned for an encore and played “Three More Days”. 3 of the 4 backing musicians exited afterwards and Ray played “Jolene” accompanied by bassist Jennifer Condos. She left afterwards and a stagehand brought Ray a neck rack that held a harmonica in front of his mouth. Before he could start the song, someone in the crowd yelled out that he looked like Jesus. Ray, who has a reputation for rarely interacting with the crowd, and who up to that point had said little more than “thank you very much” between songs, grimaced and replied, “I do NOT look like Jesus. Shut the f*** up with that.” This animated response prompted a lot of laughs from the crowd. He thanked the crowd, his backing band, and his supporting act Leona Naess before ending the show with “All the Wild Horses”, the last track on Trouble. It was a good song to end on, and when he wasn’t singing he played the harmonica while strumming his guitar, the harmonica being used in place of where the strings are played on the studio version of the song.

It was a really good show overall, the best I’ve seen this year so far. The crowd was great (despite some occasionally annoying catcalls), all the performers and musicians were top notch, and the venue was perfect for that type of show. I hope he plays Dallas again sometime, and I’m glad I got to finally see him live.

Here is the setlist Ray LaMontagne played:

You Are The Best Thing
Hold You In My Arms
Let It Be Me
I Still Care For You#
Empty
Henry Nearly Killed Me (It’s A Shame)
Roses and Cigarettes
Meg White
Burn*
Winter Birds*
Hey Me, Hey Mama
You Can Bring Me Flowers
Shelter
Trouble

encore:
Three More Days
Jolene+
All The Wild Horses*

#backing vocals from Leona Naess
*Ray solo
+Ray solo with Jennifer Condos on bass