Bits of magic worked their way into the Wolf Mountain dome Tuesday night. The magicians were lady exotica Joan Osborne and earthy mover Rusted Root. And by the looks of the bouncing crowd, the spell was a good one.
Osborne, dressed in a black leather topcoat and orange muffler, stepped on stage in the midst of a chilly spell. But the icy air did nothing to stop this hot artist from blasting away - though she did say the show was toned down to compensate the intimate arrangement of the dome.Opening with the mandolin-based "St. Teresa," Osborne and her band - including former Hooters guitarist Eric Bazilian - mesmerized the crowd and began to work their wonders.
The sharp mix highlighted all the instruments played - the mandolin, acoustic guitars, wire-brush-beaten drums, keyboards and bass.
Osborne's voice, sounding a little like a deeper Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac fame, cracked at the most opportune times, giving her songs a dash of spice.
The band worked with folk, modern jangles and Middle Eastern cries to draw the audience. Songs such as the funky weave of "Spider Web" and the acoustic lullaby "Lumina" swayed the audience, members of which not only bounced along with the beats but broke off in about a half dozen hackey sac circles.
"Chicks with acoustic guitars are taking over the world," Osborne said just before the band strummed out "Crazy Baby."
Osborne, appearing in her second big-show Utah appearance this year - the first was in May with Melissa Etheridge - and her band kept the pace and primed the audience with her raw-but-rich sound. And not to disappoint the crowd, she also played her smash single "One of Us," a quaint but far from sacrilegious, philosophical exploration of the nature of deity.
Taking Osborne's energetic and dynamic cue - and after an equipment move - Rusted Root, a Pittsburgh-based band that focuses its energy on tribal grooves - walked onstage and, with the essence of a shaman, hypnotically played "Back to the Earth."
The band - guitarist/vocalist Mike Glabicki, bassist/vocalist Patrick Norman, wind instrumentalist John Buynak and percussionists Jim Donovan, Jim DiSpirito and Liz Berlin - loved to groove the primal way.
Heavy beats and percussive intertwines are key to the style of music Rusted Root plays. But that's no summary of the show.
Feeding and flourishing on the crowd's energy, the band shot through more than an hour's worth of material. Highlighted with strobing spotlights, the performers jumped into the flamenco-salted "Ecstasy." Glabicki picked away at his full-bodied acoustic guitar as he chanted the verses of the high energy song. The reggae-inspired "Lost in a Crowd" came at "Ecstasy's" heels.
The audience, which became quite large as the night went on, couldn't help but bounce and move to the infectious beats. Rusted Root also left plenty of space for extended improvisational jams by mixing in a mesmerizing flute and wandering basslines.
A new song, "Feel It Burn," featuring Buynak's harmonica and Berlin's finger-picked washboard, gave the crowd a shot of road life yearning. The acoustic Cajun-flavored ballad "Sweet Mary" mellowed things out with its three-part harmony and clean clicking mandolin.
The hazy "Cruel Sunk" and funky "Cat Turned Blue" syncopated the audience's moves while the country-flavored "Rain," which reminded a lot of people of a barn-covered country hoedown, sped the spinning up a few machs. No matter what type of beat the band threw out, the concert attendees threw their troubles over their shoulders and joyously danced their cares away.
Another dynamic selection, the deep and feverish "Laugh As the Sun," brought more bounces from the audience, as did the show-capping percussion-fest, "Drum Trip."
Rusted Root's encore featured the primal jubilee of "Scattered" and the pop-bounce of "Send Me on My Way."
Osborne and Rusted Root cast their spells, and by the amount of sweat flying from shaking bodies, those in the audience were bewitched and in a fun and spinning frenzy.