Vitamin C, keratin, blueberries, running, swimming, anti-wrinkle creams, voodoo, sacrificial chickens – there are a lot of theories about anti-aging remedies out there, but I didn’t really believe any of them until I saw Brian Vander Ark take the stage.
The lead singer of The Verve Pipe (of ‘The Freshmen’ fame) is not only perfectly preserved, he’s actually better looking than he was in the 90’s, and still with a voice of gold. The band packed them in at Schubas on Saturday night, playing to a very excited crowd with a median age of I’d say late thirties early forties (I’ve never seen so much red wine at Schubas – didn’t even know the bar stocked it.)
The band sounded flat out amazing – the group is obviously very in synch and very supportive of each other, with each band member getting a well deserved solo (Craig Griffith’s harmonica solo was a clear highlight for the crowd). They mixed it up with new songs, making their way through a few tracks off their new album Overboard: “Hit and Run,” “Don’t Say it’s Over” and title track “Overboard”, along with classics and crowd pleasers “Photograph” and of course “The Freshmen,” which surprisingly came in the middle of the set instead of the encore. I was a little surprised by that decision until I realized that the band clearly had everything very firmly in hand – they instead wrapped it up with two phenomenal covers: Supertramp’s “Take the Long Way Home” and Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” at which point Schubas might as well have been a karaoke bar. Clearly you don’t stay a band as long as these guys have without knowing how to please a crowd.