The Gin Blossoms Playing it Safe

Having little knowledge about the Gin Blossoms, aside from their hits "Hey Jealousy" and "Found Out About You," I saw them Friday night at The Canyon Club. Playing to a packed house that was predominantly female, this five piece band that hails from Tempe, Arizona, felt right a home performing their brand of mid tempo pop rock.

Lead singer and tambourine maestro Robin Wilson fronted the band while interacting with the crowd and their electronic devices. With a strong voice and confident stage persona, Wilson and the band had the audience on their feet the entire show, with a call to arm-waving on almost every song.

Musically, the band was very tight and had clear and even dynamics driven by drummer John Richardson and bassist Bill Leen, right up front laying down the low notes. Scott Johnson on lead guitar (a nice old Telecaster, with a change up to a hollow bodied Gretsch) book-ended rhythm guitarist Jesse Valenzuela, who remained mostly in the shadows.

It appeared that the audience was completely enthralled with the band, singing along on every song. Things got interesting with the performance of one of their newer songs "I'm Ready," in which the band amped it up a bit and launched into an extended jam with a brief nod to Alice Cooper's "Elected."

On a more serious note, it was very nice to see the band supporting two very worthy causes, with information and sign-up tables flanking their merchandise table. The two charities were the Fender Foundation (supporting musical education programs for kids) with the Gin Blossoms auctioning off autographed guitars. The other charity is called Love, Hope, Strength, which is building a DNA data base for stem cell matching of potential donors with cancer patients. I signed up for the latter and encourage others to look into this program that is endorsed by the band.