Hootie and Co. proving the hipsters wrong
Popular, if uncool, ’90s band draws packed house on reunion tour
MOUNTAIN VIEW >> Twentyfive years after breaking onto the national scene in a big way, and more than 10 years after breaking up, Hootie and the Blowfish are back and on a major reunion tour that brought the South Carolina pop-rock band to the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View on Saturday night.
It seems we missed them. More than 11,000 fans turned out to see the band, which peaked in popularity with the release of the recordsetting debut “Cracked Rear View” in the mid-’90s.
And these fans seemed thrilled to relive the closeknit harmonies, warm lead vocals and catchy Starbucks-friendly melodies that propelled such singles as “Hold My Hand,” “Let Her Cry” and “Only Wanna Be with You” into the Top 10 back in the day.
But if you were looking for anything other than a nostalgic spin through the band’s oldies and a clever assortment of covers, you were probably in the wrong place.
Hootie and the Blowfish isn’t bringing much that’s new to the table on this tour. But, as far as fans at Shoreline were concerned, they didn’t need to.
The trek, dubbed the Group Therapy Tour, celebrates the 25th anniversary of “Cracked Rear View.” And, indeed, there is a lot to celebrate when it comes to that release, which still stands as one of the top-selling albums of all time.
Yet its overwhelming popularity brought huge expectations that the band couldn’t meet on subsequent albums. Then came the backlash, as tastemakers worked tirelessly to put Hootie and the Blowfish on the same “uncool” list as Michael Bolton and Kenny G.
The band’s final two albums, 2003’s eponymous platter and 2005’s “Looking for Lucky,” couldn’t even dent the Top 40. A few years later, vocalist Darius Rucker launched a wildly successful solo career in country music, and Hootie and the Blowfish were put on what seemed like permanent hiatus.
Yet here they were, the band’s signature mid-’90s lineup of Rucker on vocals and guitar, Mark Bryan on lead guitar, Dean Felber on bass and Jim Sonefeld on drums, ready to rock fans at Shoreline.
After a fun opening set by Canadian pop-rock favorites Barenaked Ladies, Rucker and company took the stage and kicked open their set, like the “Cracked Rear View” album itself, with “Hannah Jane.”
The group then ventured into “Looking for Lucky” territory for “State Your Peace,” which most of these fans were probably hearing for the first time, before recalling its hit cover of 54-40’s “I Go Blind” off the soundtrack to the TV show “Friends.”
It was the first of many satisfying cover songs, including Tom Waits’ “I Hope I Don’t Fall in Love With You,” Led Zeppelin’s “Hey Hey What Can I Do” and Stephen Stills’ “Love the One You’re With,” among others.
Rucker also turned to the songbook of his favorite band — and, for my money, the best American rock band of all time — R.E.M. for a solid version of “Losing My Religion.” I would have preferred, however, if the singer had dusted off the version of R.E.M.’s “Driver 8” found on Hootie and the Blowfish’s “Scattered, Smothered and Covered” album of 2000.
Rucker also included a pair of solo hits — “Alright” and “Wagon Wheel” — both of which were well received by the audience.
Yet despite the fun cover songs and Rucker solo offerings, the true star of the show was the “Cracked Rear View” material. So many of the offerings from that album — especially “Let Her Cry” and “Hold My Hand” — sounded like timeless pop-rock nuggets, showing that the hipsters pretty much had no idea what they were talking about when they were slamming the band back in the day.