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Keller Williams Photo by Michael Kaiz
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Bringing his acoustic dance music back to Chicago, Keller Williams was greeted by a packed house. Having brought the house down the night before in Madison, anticipation was running high for this show.
Above Keller's head were two giant eyes on projector screens. Throughout the concert excellent visuals, that were themed to the songs Keller was playing, could be seen through the eyes. When Keller stood at the microphone you could picture him as the nose of the face.
Walking on stage already playing his instrumental piece Art, the crowd erupted like a volcano held back for a millennium. Playing plenty of his classics, a well weathered Keller fan could sit back and really enjoy this show. Sally Sullivan, off his studio release "Buzz!" set the acoustic mood for the first set.
Bob Dylan's Maggie's Farm sounded natural in Keller's style. Covering R.E.M.'s King of Birds, Keller made use of his dynamic voice. He used a loop to segway into folk musician Ani DiFranco's Swing.
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Keller performing Terrapin Station Photo by Michael Kaiz
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After playing Terrapin Station on piano, Keller invited Scott Sun on stage. Scott operates the eyes in the sky, but he was armed with a saxophone for this appearance. Keller, playing his mouth flugel, and Scott dueled until a third member was added to the jam. Lewis Gousin, Keller's sound board technician and harmony vocals section, came blasting into the mix with trumpet in hand. Andrew Queen, Keller's stage manager, handed Keller a spot light, and Keller moved the spotlight to whoever was playing the music; Scott, Lewis, or himself. This is the first time I saw what I think of as the Keller William's Jazz Trio. They sound great playing together, a result of living on the same bus while on tour I guess.
Once Keller was left alone on stage again, he took the jam into Michael Franti's What I Be. The audience made the house shake when Keller struck up Kidney in a Cooler, which segwayed quit well into The Who's Baba O'Reilly, the last song before set break.
Keller got things going quickly in the second set by playing his crowd pleaser, Freaker by the Speaker, inserting Cameo's Word Up in the middle. After that Keller went into a long jam that moved through his classics Breathe and Up In My Cadillac and featured a verse from the String Cheese Incident's Jellyfish.
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Singing Apparation Photo by Michael Kaiz
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As Keller was playing Apparition, Earl, his dog came on stage. I had the opportunity to meet Earl the day before, and he is one of the coolest dogs I've had the pleasure to pet in quite some time. Earl loved the attention that the crowd gave him. It's usually Earl's turn to prance about when Keller plays Dogs, which was the next song we heard. This leads me to believe that Earl couldn't wait his turn when he heard the crowd and ran out early.
The rendition of St. Stephen we heard was excellent. Keller's last jam of the evening started of with Ninja of Love and moved into Best Feeling. I love hearing Best Feeling live, because the experience of live music is, for me, the best feeling. Keller closed out the second set with the Steve Miller Band's Fly like an Eagle. Keller put on a pair of gloves and recited these lyrics:
Fly like an eagle to the sea,
Fly like a laser let my spirit carry me.
At this time the house lights dimmed even further and red beams shot forth from Keller's hands. The gloves had a laser positioned on each finger. We saw this set of ten points of red light dance around the stage and finally approach the theremin unit. A theremin produces sounds based on the position of a musician hands in a magnetic field. All we saw was a pair of glowing red hands summoning forth music. As Keller called forth the eerie tones, red dots bounced around the walls and ceiling of The Riviera.
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Eyes, Nose, and Barefoot Toes Photo by Michael Kaiz
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After two minutes of cheering so loud that you could not just hear it, but feel it, Keller came back on stage for an encore. Sitting down at the keyboards, he proceeded to loop from his drum machine. With a rhythm track in place, he walked over to his bass and playing in the spot light, he sang the Rapper's Delight. As he closed out the show with the Sugar Hill Gang's rap anthem I couldn't help but feel the time for seeing Keller in the smaller venues could be coming to a close. This was not the first sold out show on this tour, and it's not the last. People are coming out to see Keller in droves and his show will only get better.
Keller Williams' Website can be found at http://www.kellerwilliams.net/
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