Grace Potter
Britt Fest
Jacksonville, OR
July 22

Grace Potter’s performance was akin to a fourth of July fireworks display: designed methodically to produce spectacle. This talented young woman can put on a show. With a seven member band including: 2 drum sets, 3 variations of keys, percussion tools, accordion, guitar, bass, back-up vocals and Grace dabbling in it all; there was an abundance of enthusiastic, high-energy sound.
The show built from an 80’s pop rock vibe and moved back a decade or so as they progressed into more soulful, funky rock and blues. She coaxed and cajoled the audience to stand up and dance, to feed the energy of the music back to stage. The show required participation—a fireworks display to a quiet room, doesn’t hold the same potency.
This solo project was quite different from what I’d experienced from her in the past. As Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, I’d come to know her as a funk and soul powerhouse rocker with raw force in her vocal ability, that might knock a lesser being off their feet. Her solo album, Midnight, which seems designed to reach a Top 40 audience, likely has been effective (although being outside the peripheral range of the Top 40 Pop Hit crowd myself, I can only guess at that).

Grace’s powerful raspy voice, performance sensibility and crowd engaging skills took a front seat. This created an impressive entertainment experience. Playing, “Apologies” from a previous album with the Nocturnals, Grace offered a debt of gratitude to her grandma for all the lessons she didn’t know she’d learn. The majority of the band then left the stage, leaving Potter and the guitarist to channel Otis Redding and Al Green in a deep soul guitar walk, through low, muddy landscapes. Every cell in my body joined the current of that river; then jumped, briefly, ashore as she took the stage to herself to display what she’d learned on the electric guitar in booming, heavy echoes. A few of my toes dipped back in, led to my waist and swirled my scalp to the flow as the music built to explode in a finale montage of “Nothing But the Water” into Prince’s “Kiss” and “Delirious,” then rampaged through sounds of Stevie Nicks and passionate hard rock yells riding the light-show spasm to applause.

Like all good firework shows, there was a false finale and the encore pulled the momentum back to pause with Potter solo on organ singing, “I Shall Be Released.” The remainder of the band returned to stage and poured themselves into a high-energy, crowd-pleasing, “Stars” and “Paris (Ooh-la-la).” Potter’s guitar spoke in two syllables to call the others to echo. They all grabbed a striking device, pooled around the two drum sets and smacked whatever surface they could find. The song morphed into Bow Wow Wow’s “I Want Candy.” Grace dropped her guitar, grabbed a stick as well and beat the outer edge of the large bass drum. The lights went out—each drum stick glowed, sending streaks of color into the dark; the container of music circled back to, “Paris (Ooh-la-la).” The skillful craft of design produced an almost involuntary response of excitement. The full lit sky, returned dark, leaving the audience coated in the radiant hue of musical explosion.