With his incredible guitar technique and masterful control of a variety of looping pedals, Keller Williams puts on a one-man show you must see to believe. An outstanding instrumentalist, Keller simply never stops building on his loops, laying down basslines galore, overlaying vocal percussion and drum machine beats, and even playing a MIDI electric guitar that sounds like everything from a sitar to a saxophone. Using that diversity of sounds, Williams makes sure each song uses a different instrumentation than the song before--even though there's only one man on stage, every song feels fresh.
Williams liberally sprinkled covers throughout his Friday night Paradise show, always playing them with a signature twist. His take on the Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" somehow out-weirded David Byrne, and a bluegrass version of the Grateful Dead's "Scarlet Begonias" likewise pleasantly surprised. Williams also played a show-stealing, reggae version of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode," featuring--as Williams said himself--an "invisible poseur reggae band" and a great saxophone solo played on his MIDI electric guitar.
In addition to the great covers, Williams' performance showcased his outstanding songwriting skills. Williams' original song catalog runs twelve albums deep, and his passionate fans knew the lyrics to almost every song. "Love Handles" off of 2003's Home received the biggest cheer of the night, and seemingly every person in the room sang along to Williams' profanity-laced a cappella breakdown at the end of "Gate Crashers Suck." Many even tried to sing along to "Multisyllabic," a pseudo-rap tune that Williams challenged the audience to keep up with, while recording vocal loops and playing a funk bassline.
All of this isn't to say that the night was perfect: some of the songs pushed the limits of how long one 15-second snippet of guitar should be looped. The 20-minute exploratory version of "Apparation" that opened the second half of the set tested my usually stellar musical patience. That said, judging by the number of dreadlocks per capita in the audience, I daresay many at the show were looking forward to hearing Williams groove out. In the end, while some of his jam band stylings might not be for everyone, I couldn't recommend seeing a Keller Williams concert more highly. His guitar skills are impeccable, and he has mastered the art of the looping pedal to the point where it is just too cool to miss.
