Pat Metheny Unity Group at Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, July 17, 2014

Bruce Hornsby & Sonny Emory with the Pat Metheny Unity Group
2014-07-17
Wells Fargo Center for the Arts
50 Mark West Springs Rd, Santa Rosa, CA 95403
8:00 PM, Thursday, July 17, 2014

[8:02 PM announcements by Andre; off 8:06 PM, pause, Bruce out, lights down after another minute or so]

1. [8:07 PM] M.I.A.M.I. &
2. [8:13 PM] the Valley Road ē
3. [8:20 PM] Preacher in the Ring, Part 1 / Variation II (Webern) / Caténaires (Carter)
4. [8:28 PM] Life in the Psychotropics
5. [8:34 PM] ? (sick bastard tune?)
6. [8:43 PM] Might As Well Be Me (new Hunter/Hornsby tune)
7. [8:48 PM] Nobody There But Me (Haden/Hornsby tune written for Willie Nelson)
8. [8:54 PM] Loser
9. [8:59 PM] ? (3rd sb tune? i forget, doh!)
10. [9:02 PM] King of the Hill
    [set ends 9:08 PM, Bruce & Sonny bow, then off]

1. [9:09 PM] ? Into the Dream (solo tune on Pikasso guitar)
2. [9:13 PM] ? Come and See (add CP, then AS, the BW during tune)
3. [9:22 PM] ? Roofdogs
4. [9:30 PM] ? the Bat
5. [9:35 PM] ? Turnaround
   - Kin Suite -
6. [9:41 PM] ?
7. [9:52 PM] ?
8. [10:05 PM] ?
9. [10:13 PM] ?
10. [10:15 PM] ?
    [10:31 PM; Kin set ends]
11. [10:31 PM] the Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (PM duet w/BH)
12. [10:36 PM] (Go) Get It (PM duet w/AS)
13. [10:41 PM] ?
14. [10:46 PM] ?
    [set ends 10:53 PM; very brief encore break]
     
    Encore
15. [10:54 PM] The Way It Is (w/BH, SE)
16. [11:03 PM] Are You Going With Me?
    [show ends 11:10 PM]

Pat Metheny Unity Group

• Giulio Carmassi: piano, keyboards, woodwinds, brass, guitar, bass, drums, vox;
• Pat Metheny: guitar, acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, pikaso guitar, guitar synthesizer, orchestrionics, palmas;
• Chris Potter: tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto flute, bass flute, acoustic guitar, palmas;
• Antonio Sánchez: drums, cajon, palmas, percussion;
• Ben Williams: bass, contrabass, palmas.

• Sonny Emory: drums;
• Bruce Hornsby: keyboards, accordion, vox.

Hornsby/Metheny2 - DONE

## Notes

After a few minutes for the usual promotional announcements from the local radio DJ drafted to emcee, Bruce walked out alone to take a seat in the front of the stage even before the house lights went down – starting off the night “campfire style”, the first two tunes featured Bruce playing dulcimer rather than piano. About a minute or so into M.I.A.M.I., Bruce's brand new tune about tearing about on Miami/FL highways, my jaw dropped as Pa Metheny walked out holding an acoustic guitar and began to play. Yeah! That's why I drove way up to Santa Rosa! Sonny joined in on spoons/washboard towards the end, completing the lineup for the moment.

After the first tune, Bruce and Pat bantered a bit about their time in college at Florida State, then Pat swapped his acoustic for a hollow body electric and the show continued with Bruce's classic, the Valley Road. Cool! Walk on, walk on… Pat bowed out after that tune, while Bruce moved back to his customay spot at the grand piano, and Sonny slipped behind the traps.

For the rest of the opening hour, Bruce toured us through an abbreviated version of his soon-to-be released album, Solo (add link to wikipedia?). It was cool hearing the new and rare tunes, and a return to comfortable when he pulled out a chestnut. Unfortunately, I felt constrained by the “no distractions” policy being enforced by the venue, so my setlist isn't as accurate as it should be. Hopefully I'll be able to pull corrections off of Bruuuce.com sometime soon!

Following bows from Bruce and Sonny at the conclusion of their set, the house lights stayed low, and Pat strolled on almost immediately thereafter to take a seat at center stage with his Pikasso guitar for a solo opener. Cool!

I titled that Into the Dream, after the piece from his 19xx release, ?Are You Going With Me?, though it very well might be the case that Pat was simply improvising or playing another tune altogether. Kinda hard to tell when you got 42 strings to try and listen to!

For the second tune, ?Come and See? , Pat was joined one-by-one by the members of the Unity Band: first Chris Potter, then Antonio Sanchez, and finally Ben Williams. This launched a mini set about 30 min long featuring an uninterrupted suite of tunes both new and old. Good stuff!

At the conclusion of this opening sequence, Pat stopped to talk to the crowd, introduce the quartet, bring on Giulio, and mention that next suite is composed of tunes exclusively from the latest recording, Kin.

Being unable to take notes due to the insanely restrictive policies on cell phone use, I can't say I'm sure how many parts the Kin suite had. My recollection is that there were 5-7 discreet stops, but that some of those sections seemed to concatenate multiple segments together. For what it's worth, the album contains nine tunes over 70 minutes, while tonight's version lasted about an hour.

There was a definite pause to indicate the end of the suite, and the band then left the stage, almost like an encore break. After a few seconds, Pat returned with Bruce Hornsby to perform a duet (the Moon Is a Harsh Mistress), then Bruce left, replaced by ?Antonio? for a second duet, ?(Go) Get It?. I believe that Pat continued the duet theme by following up with works featuring Chris and Ben, but my recollection is fuzzy on this detail, and it's possible that the others were featured in extended solos rather than strict duets.

Almost 11 PM and we get to the real encore break. Whew, twe hours! Give those guys some cold beer! That's what I'm talkin' about! When the musicians reconvened, I was shocked to hear Pat and his band play the Way It Is with both Bruce and Sonny…always good to be surprised! Pat's early hit, Are You Going With Me?, then wrapped things up, sending us out blissfully into the night. What a show! Sure makes me glad I took the time to get out tonight!

For the moment, Bruce's new album is streaming at Soundcloud.

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