I had the ability to go to another concert this last weekend. I was able to go and see Five For Fighting and Vertical Horizon opened for them.
I have been a Five For Fighting fan for many years. I am not sure exactly when I first heard “It’s Not Easy (Superman)” [now known as the Superman song] but it was a great song. So, I went out and bought the CD, “American Town” that had that song on it. I ended up enjoying that album so much that I bought all his other albums, and then continued to buy his new albums as they came out.
I had not had the opportunity to see Five for Fighting live before so when I saw that he was coming to town I asked my wife if I could go and she said sure. I asked her if she wanted to go too, but she declined, and that is totally fine – she isn’t a big concert person.
They were performing at “The Knitting Factory” in downtown Boise, and so I headed down with enough time to get in line, and get a good spot to see and prop myself up (standing only).
I noticed before the show that I was not the oldest there, or even the average age, I was younger than most of the people at the show. That was a little odd to me since neither band is what I would consider old. Yes, the members are older, but neither band made it big until the 1990’s or even the 2000’s.
Vertical Horizon was up first, and they did a fine job. I knew their one BIG song “Everything You Want” , but that was the only one I knew.
Then Five For Fighting came out, and they did a great job. I really liked how they didn’t perform the songs exactly the same as the recordings of the songs. They all had slight changes to suit to mood they were feeling while performing. They held notes out, they changed the timing a little, or something else along those lines. It felt real rather than listening to the recording.
The lead singer, piano player, and occasional guitar player, of the group, Jon talked between songs. He gave background for the songs, or sometimes would tell a story related to the song. It was really cool.
Here is the set list:
- America Town
- Chances Are
- Easy Tonight
- Riddle
- Two Lights
- Bella’s Birthday Cake – first single
- 100 Years
- Two Frogs
- New York City Weather Report
- I Just Love You
- Cover of Rocketman
- Can One Man Save the World
- Superman
- Cover of Bohemian Rhapsody
The cover of Rocketman, by Sir Elton John, was a vote by the audience between that and Desperado, and Rocketman got a much larger vote. And the cover of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen was very well done. Both songs had a lot of audience participation. The lead guitar player was amazing. He is one of the best guitar players I have ever seen live. His sound and fingering ability was astounding at times.
Here are a couple pictures:
I recorded him singing Superman – sorry for the poor quality, it was dark and I wasn’t that close to the stage.
It was a good concert. I really enjoyed it. Jon seems like a down to Earth regular guy that just loves making music, and trying to make a positive difference in the world. I am not sure I would make an effort to go to another Five For Fighting concert, but if I had the opportunity I probably would.