Marc Broussard at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (15 Feb 2015)
- All Long
- Save Me
- Rock Steady
- Come Around
- Hard Knocks
- Hope for Me Yet
- Try Me / Love and Happiness (Al Green cover)
- Hurricane Heart
- Lovely Day (Bill Withers cover) / Saturday / Lovely Day- reprise
- Lonely Night in Georgia
- Come in from the Cold
- Weight of the World
- Dying Man
- Shine
- Home
— Encore —
- Lucky
- The Beauty of Who You Are
- Waiting in Vain (Bob Marley cover)
Tour Dates
03/19/15 Paris, France New Morning
03/20/15 Zurich, Switzerland Kaufleutensaal
03/21/15 Munich, Germany Tonhalle
03/23/15 Frankfurt, Germany Batschkapp
03/24/15 Berlin, Germany Kesselhaus
03/25/15 Roth, Germany Kulturfabrik
03/27/15 Amsterdam, Netherlands Paradiso
03/28/15 The Hague, Netherlands Paard van Troje
03/30/15 Aschaffenburg, Germany Colos-Saal
04/01/15 Dusseldorf, Germany Pitcher
04/02/15 Dortmund, Germany Musiktheater Piano
04/03/15 Hamburg, Germany Kleiner Donner
05/01/15 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
05/31/15 Michael Arnone’s Crawfish Fest
…compliments of a “Bayou Soul” performance from singer-songwriter Marc Broussard. Broussard is out in support of his sixth and latest studio effort, last year’s A Life Worth Living (Vanguard Records) and has cultivated a loyal area fan base that was treated to a loose and varied 1hr. 45 min. set of originals and well-chosen covers.
A crack three-piece backing band kept it tight but loose, playing Brown originals and a mid-set extended and aching cover of Van Morrison’s ‘Sweet Thing’, with her guitarist wailing away in a Big Head Todd/SRV style of blues playing. Though she doesn’t sound like she’s from Minneapolis, Brown is undoubtedly one of the local musical treasures worth seeking out to see live with a “dig deep for all you’ve got” way of singing, like other locals Tina Schlieske and Mary Cutrufello.
‘Save Me’ from his 2004 major label debut set the tone perfectly for the rest of the set—a rhythmic up-tempo toe-tapper that lyrically draws on his Louisiana roots with a spirited and soulful foundation. Going almost in chronological order, ‘Rock Steady’ and ‘Come Around’ were also from 2004, before Broussard jumped to 2008’s Keep Coming Back with its single, ‘Hard Knocks’.
His own ‘Try Me’ was merged via the familiar drum beat and guitar lick from ‘Love and Happiness’ (Al Green cover), with Broussard urging the crowd to take the place of his absent background singers and horn players.
“Pick your moment to deliver bad news- that’s the message of this song”, he mentioned before launching into the new ‘Hurricane Heart’, moving it slightly from the order scribbled on the setlist. From there, another familiar bassline was heard and a snappy first verse and reprise of Bill Withers’ ‘Lovely Day’ bookended his own, ‘Saturday’.
Broussard took time to mention mid-set about the cold woes of touring Minnesota in February and that his kids were in shorts swimming and playing football in much-warmer Louisiana, before launching into the very appropriate ‘Come in from the Cold’.
The encore began, like the show, with only Broussard and a spotlight on he and his acoustic guitar, as he crooned two songs of his that have since become popularly played at weddings, ‘Lucky’ and ‘The Beauty of Who You Are’.
How to follow that one-two punch of heart-tugging ballads and end the show?- Of course, with a feel good slow/sway dance cover of Bob Marley and The Wailers’ ‘Waiting in Vain’, which sent everyone out the door with good vibes and feeling rhythmically harmonious.
“Laissez les bons temps rouler!” or “Let the Good Times Roll” they say in the Big Easy this time of year – with Marc Broussard’s soulful singing, the crowd at the Varsity Theater, did just that.
