Mason Jennings

Troubadour - February 11, 2006

Live Review by Mark McConville

Toward the end of his set, Chad Van Gaalen remarked that he was overwhelmed by being in Los Angeles.  “It’s cold and snowy where I live.  The scene here is crazy.  It’s a different world here,” he quietly observed.  Sorry, Chad, it was the room.  Kiss would have been overwhelmed by the Saturday night Troubadour crowd.

Van Gaalen (rhymes with Van Halen, weirdly and possibly unfortunately) was pulling quadruple duty, playing a bass drum with his right foot, a snare with his left, a harmonica with his mouth and slide guitar with his hands.  Slouched over his telecaster, he evoked tinges of Neil Young, Leadbelly and M. Ward for an unappreciative audience.  He hovered over his instruments like a talented but awkward high school sophomore in a room full of jaded seniors.

For Mason Jennings, it was a case of youth being wasted on the young.  Jennings is at a dangerous point in his career:  he has one of the most unique voices around, he’s certainly talented enough to be in the national spotlight and his songs have meaning and heart.  But the love from his fans seemed to be so great that the subsequent sing-along was more annoying than respectful.  His fans weren’t singing with him, they were singing at him.  Turns out, no one’s really listening that well, either, and poor Mason doesn’t seem to know how to deal with it.  During soft, intimate songs like “Forgiveness,” the amplified Jennings competed with the conversations of his fanbase…hardly the way to show a man that you love his music.

Despite these difficulties, armed only with a piano, guitar and grizzled voice, Jennings deftly spanned his four albums and played a few encores.  His older songs sound as good as ever, and, based on the few new beautiful songs he played, there will be a line of loud, oblivious jackasses at the record store on May 2nd, when his new album hits stores.

The most important feeling left by the evening is that Mason Jennings doesn’t seem to be a flash in the pan.  He gives the impression that he will be doing this for a long time.  He is a strong, no-nonsense performer and his songs are only getting better.