Daryl Hall and John Oates – 6-15-11

Wednesday night brought Daryl Hall and John Oates’ “Do What You Want, Be What You Are” tour to Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. The tour started last year in support of a four CD box set of the same name which is a must have for definitive fans of the duo. It contains choices spanning their 40 year career including hits, rare tracks, and previously unreleased gems and live cuts. And for the most part that is what we were treated to this evening.

This was your basic “give ‘em what they want tour.” They came to play the songs everyone wanted to hear and hopefully sell some T-shirts in the process. We all know they have been playing these songs for 20 years or more so we really hope they enjoy themselves. And from all indications they did.

There were all the #1 hits from the ‘80s, “Kiss on My List”,” Private Eyes,” “I Can’t Go for That,” “Maneater,” and “Out of Touch.” They reached further back and pulled out a personal favorite of mine, the tour’s namesake, “Do What You Want, Be What You Are,” which was released as the first single off of the “Bigger Than Both of Us” album in 1976 before releasing their first #1 single “Rich Gil” off the same album in 1977.

There were some plugs for John Oates new CD “Mississippi Mile” which was released in April and “Live from Daryl’s House” a successful monthly web show that has been running for over three years now. The web show is definitely worth checking out, it boasts an impressive list of guests and some great music. But this night wasn’t about new material, this night was for classic H&O.

Opening the show was country music singer/songwriter Jimmy Wayne. Wayne has been on the country charts for several years including a #1 with “Do You Believe Me Now” in 2008. I was surprised “Sara Smile” was left to the duo themselves, even though Wayne also had a hit with the song in 2009 reaching #31 on the Country charts. I suspected there would be some kind of collaboration but sadly no.

If there could be any complaint for the evening it would be that the show seemed a little short. Maybe it was because I was still thinking of Phish’s two set three hour marathons of a few weeks ago. Or maybe it was that they originally said goodnight after only forty five minutes or so before coming back for three well-choreographed encores. Still, I wasn’t the only person looking at their watch when the band finally left the stage around ten o’clock. Nevertheless we got what we came for so ultimately fans left satisfied.

On another note, for the second consecutive show at BWCA the lawn was closed. It is still recovering from 3 days and 45,000 Phish fans. So as a result lawn ticket holders were treated to pavilion upgrades. This was undoubtedly for the best as weaker than expected sales would have left a number of seats inside empty which makes the evening uncomfortable for artists and fans. So with some new sod and a few weeks rest the lawn should be in shape for the New York Philharmonic on July 3rd.

Till then I will be report on two shows from different venues, Peter Frampton at the Paramount in Peekskill on the 18th and Peter Gabriel at SPAC on the 27th.