The Promowest Pavilion was alive with the hip-hop, R&B and jazz stylings of G. Love & Special Sauce Monday night.
The trio hit the stage at 10:00 p.m. to a screaming audience that filled about two-thirds of the newly opened facility. The music didn’t stop for about an hour and 20 minutes.
The Philadelphia native and lead vocalist, G. Love, awed the audience with his quick-witted lyrics as well as his jazz guitar stylings. While bassist Jim “Jimi Jazz” Prescott amazed the audience with his long acoustic bass solos.
Not forgotten, the third and final person in this trio is Jeffery “Thunderhouse” Clemens, who had a couple nice drum solos and backed up G. Love on vocals.
It seemed as though throughout the entire first set the band never stopped playing, one song melded into the next. Also, about midway through the first set, G. Love began to freestyle, then threw it back to drummer Clemens, who then threw it back to G. Love again. When all was said and done, the freestyle lasted for a half hour.
The scenery was something almost out of a “Austin Powers” movie with purple, blue and red lights. It was a simple stage set, including instruments, a stool for G. Love and a black back drop with psychedelic colors flashing off of it.
G. Love came onto the stage alone for the encore with a simple acoustic guitar. The mood of the crowd began to change as he brought up the Sept. 11 attacks. As the crowd hushed, he began to play the song he wrote the day of the events. Lighters began to surface throughout the crowd as the song played. After the song ended, the other remaining band members joined G. Love on the stage.
The crowd then shifted to an upbeat mode as the band played another memorial song, “Unified,” that was previously played at the concert.
The band then played their radio hit “Rodeo Clowns” and finished the two-hour long concert with “Ice Cream.”
At the concert’s end, the feeling of the crowd was one of wanting more, as they chanted G. Love’s name repeatedly. The show was so good from beginning to the end, left no time to get a drink at the full service bar, watch the Yankees game or even go to the bathroom
