On July 23, Incubus, returned to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater on tour in support of their latest album Monuments And Melodies, a 2-disc collection of greatest hits, b-sides, rarities and unreleased tracks. I have been a HUGE Incubus fan since 2001 and have caught the band every time they have been in St. Louis since then. While I’m partial to their older albums, I celebrate their newer releases as well. Music is a living breathing being and bands are constantly evolving and trying new things which is why I hate to hear people say, “Yeah, I love Incubus’ old music but the new stuff sucks”. Give me a break. This statement does nothing but separate the true fans from the people who just go to the concerts to hear “Drive”, “Pardon Me” and “Wish You Were Here”.
Let’s get down to the good stuff. The Duke Spirit opened the show. Hailing from the UK, the female fronted indie-rock group got things started in a good direction. While they’re definitely not the type of music I regularly listen to, I can see why Incubus would choose them to open. Blending Brit-pop with straight ahead rock and lots of elements of shoegaze and indie music, The Duke Spirit kept the energy level up and kept their set short and sweet.
Incubus would take the stage shortly thereafter. Considering that this was a tour behind a greatest hits album rather than a new studio release, I was excited to see what the setlist would be like. I expected to hear a lot of radio tunes but also expected a good selection of songs that only the hardcore fans would recognize. I was pretty much right on the money. Incubus started the show off old school opening with “Privilege”, the first track off their 1999 breakthrough release Make Yourself. From there they ran through a string of radio hits including “Anna Molly”, “Pardon Me” and “Megalomaniac” before slowing the show down for a couple of songs. Guitarist Mike Einziger and vocalist Brandon Boyd slipped into a stripped down version of “Drive” with bassist Ben Kenney joining in toward the end of the song while the audience helped out on vocals. The crowd also ignited into a sea of cigarette lighters much to Brandon Boyd’s surprise in this day in age where people would rather use their cell phone screens in place of the ol’ fashioned fire starter. “Look at all the lighters!”, he gushed into the mic in the middle of the song, “It’s nostalgic, everybody turn around and look at that, they’re actual lighters!”. They proceeded to then play stripped down versions of “Talk Shows On Mute” which featured Ben Kenney on acoustic guitar and “Dig” which was played in a lower key and featured DJ Chris Kilmore on the electric piano driving the song.
Incubus picked the energy back up from there in the best way possible by playing a duo of songs from their 1997 major label debut S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Boyd grabbed the didgeridoo and blew out an extended intro to “Redefine” before launching into the song which was quickly followed by “A Certain Shade Of Green”. Kenney matched Dirk Lance’s slap bass parts on both songs effortlessly. Lance was Incubus’ original bassist who was fired in 2002 due to personal differences with the rest of the band. They then played a couple of tunes from 2006’s Light Grenades and “Wish You Were Here” from 2002’s more mellow Morning View. The band ended the set with their cover of Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” which is also the last track off Monuments And Melodies.
Incubus came back out for a three song encore which featured “Punch Drunk”, a hypnotic, jazzy B-side from Light Grenades that is also featured on Monuments And Melodies, “Pistola” in which they did an extended breakdown during the bridge of the song and “Warning”. Strangely absent from the set were more of the rare selections from Monuments and “Black Heart Inertia”, the band’s latest single.
Musically the band was in top notch form. Boyd’s voice was spot on although his energy and stage antics seemed slightly more reserved than in recent years. Einziger’s guitar work was the best I’ve ever seen from him. For this performance it seemed as though he was more focused on technique than on trying to coax out insane noises from his massive array of effects pedals. He opted to play a Gibson SG Junior through three Mesa/Boogie combos and two Marshall half-stacks. While the setup sounded great, the SG didn’t pack as much punch as his Paul Reed Smith McCarty Archtops that he played regularly in his earlier days or even the Fender Jazzmaster guitars he used during the days of A Crow Left Of The Murder… DJ Kilmore’s samples stood out more than usual, Kenney’s bass lines held everything together and Jose Pasillas was experimenting with a lot of his chops as well. My only complaint was with the overall sound production of the evening. Pasillas’ drums were very echo-y and his two main crash cymbals seemed to get lost in the mix most of the time. Boyd’s vocals and Kilmore’s samples were sometimes over-dominant and Mike Einziger’s guitars sometimes also were lost in the mix. All of this though was very minor and did not distract from the amazing performance Incubus put on. They get better and better with every tour and with every album and they continue to prove why they are the biggest rock band in the world.
SETLIST:
Privilege
Pardon Me
Nice To Know You
Anna Molly
Stellar
Megalomaniac
Love Hurts
The Warmth
Drive (Stripped Down Version)
Talk Shows On Mute (Stripped Down Version)
Dig (Stripped Down Version)
Redefine
A Certain Shade Of Green
Circles
Quicksand
A Kiss To Send Us Off
Wish You Were Here
Let's Go Crazy
ENCORE:
Punch Drunk
Pistola (Extended Version)
Warning
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