Jimmy Buffett keeps 'Workin' and Playin' ' in First Niagara show
Jimmy Buffett just goes with the flow.
Whether joking with the Pittsburgh fans about his tour “skipping” the area this year, or working a running joke about a sad-looking beach ball, he always seems to have the measure of his audience.
That showed Thursday at First Niagara Pavilion.
The opening video set the tone: A whirling newspaper — like something out of a black-and-white movie — proclaimed “No Buffett for Burgettstown.” Then, an angry mob scene from a monster movie, with a civic leader ordering “Search every valley, every crevice — but the fiend must be found” as Buffett darted across the stage and the screen switched to the video for the new title song for the tour, “Workin' and Playin'.”
When the band came on, the Coral Reefers launched into “Ragtop Day,” a hymn to the joys of cruising along the highway with the top down, a great song for the day, and as Buffett later commented, “I don't think I've ever seen as beautiful a night here — weather wise.” Over the years, fans making the annual trek to the venue Buffett still sometimes refers to as Star Lake have been treated to a few beautiful days, and a few scorchers along with some rain and some hail.
“Do I know my crowd or what?” he asked after “It's Five O'Clock Somewhere,” the first of two songs to feature “seven-time CMA musician of the year” Mac McAnally. Buffett had a good time coming up with descriptions for McAnally's shirt, first referring to it as “disco camouflage,” then later as “parrot(-colored) camouflage.”
Another running gag started via two boys in the front rows, one holding a sign that said “Our Mom let us come to the show.”
Later, Buffett said he was singing “Come Monday” for Mom. “Your only job,” he told the boys with the sign, “is to grow up and become itinerant musicians and drive your Mom crazy.”
“No,” he amended. “Rocket scientist is better.”
The boys got another shout out before “Why Don't We Get Drunk…,” when he advised Mom to cover their ears.
The sad-looking, semi-deflated beach ball, a victim of crowd bashing, was discovered mid concert. “Get his beach ball some air and maybe a shot of tequila,” he called to a stagehand. By the end of “Margaritaville,” the re-inflated beach ball was returned, with the addition of a magic-marker happy face. Buffett launched it into the crowd, saying it was a “party animal” and needed to be tossed out to the people in the lawn seats.
The second half of the concert included some songs not frequently played on the tour so far, including “Wonder Why We Ever Go Home,” the McAnally-penned “It's My Job” and Buffett's paean to Key West icon “Capt. Tony” Tarracino, whose bar gave Buffett much of his start, in “Last Mango in Paris.”
The crowd favorite “Cheeseburger in Paradise” led to a few more laughs. “I've seen miracles happen at these shows,” Buffett said. “Just say cheeseburgers.” Then during a guitar solo, he wandered to the side of the stage to talk to some people in the audience. Problem was, he kinda didn't make it back to his microphone before the vocal were due to return. The night's second miracle — after the weather — might have been that the Coral Reefers got through the song for all the laughing.
Buffett closed with a solo acoustic version of “Chanson Pour Les Petits Enfants.” It was fitting, in that it's one of those rare songs that can get strangers to burst into song together — in phonetic French. Miracles, indeed.
Vaunda Bonnett is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-320-7917 or vbonnett@tribweb.com.
