I must admit that I was a little surprised when I first heard that Incubus was headlining a show at Raley Field in West Sacramento last week. Sure, they can still be heard on local radio stations with moderate regularity, but most of the songs which do get play must be a decade old at this point. "Pardon Me" and "Wish You Were Here" were decent hits in their time, but are they enough to draw an audience in 2011?
As it turns out, they can. Perhaps four or five thousand fans filled out a good portion of the available seating in the baseball stadium, with a last-minute Groupon adding at least an extra thousand. And looking around, few in the crowd appeared to be under the age of twenty-five – which led me to believe that I wasn't the only one that hadn't heard from these guys in a while.
But that's not to say that they haven't been hard at work. This tour is in support of their seventh album (yeah, seventh!), If Not Now, When?, and I was certainly ready to see what they had to offer all these years later.
Following opening act AWOLNATION, who provided an energetic set despite a half-empty stadium, Incubus hit the stage and the crowd seemed quite happy to see them in action. The general admission section pushed forward as women screamed declarations of love for singer Brandon Boyd, thus proving that the band still has a pretty solid following these days.
To be fair, such a glowing reception is understandable too; these guys have aged well. They put on a much more solid performance than I remember seeing in 1999 when I caught the band opening for Sabbath with Pantera, with a good amount of energy and crowd interaction. After opening with "Megalomaniac,” they hit the crowd with "Wish You Were Here," and you could tell that this is what people came out for. They offered up about twenty songs (heavy on the new stuff), with an encore led off by "Pardon Me,” before concluding with a new song "Tomorrow's Food.”
All around, Incubus provided a solid performance and left the audience satisfied with their discounted tickets. Sure, many of them didn’t know all the songs, but when you get a quality band playing outdoors on a beautiful evening, it’s hard to complain.
Artist:
www.enjoyincubus.com/ca
www.myspace.com/incubus
www.facebook.com/incubus
www.twitter.com/incubusband
Tour:
Incubus' world tour continues. Click here for a list of upcoming shows.
