February 5, 2019

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Greg Kihn, from The Greg Kihn Band brought a fun, acoustic, storytellers style show to The Beachland Ballroom on Saturday night.

 

Taking the stage armed with a 12-string acoustic guitar, Kihn was also accompanied by Robert Berry, who played a six-string acoustic and provided backing vocals and beats that he tapped on his guitar and then looped on certain songs to provide percussion.

 

After the first song, Kihn told the audience that he never gets to perform that song live and that’s what was going to make this show special.  He was going to get to play songs that he wouldn’t normally play with his band.

 

Throughout the show, Kihn played songs from deep in his catalog as well as a few cover tunes including Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” and The Beatles “I've Just Seen A Face.”

 

Kihn told a story of how Bruce Springsteen liked his band’s version of “For You” so he decided to give him another song.  He said that Springsteen was going to give it to The Knack but decided to give it to him instead.

 

Springsteen wrote the lyrics for “Rendezvous” on a napkin and Kihn inadvertently wiped his forehead with it, thus losing the lyrics.  So he had Bruce send him a tape recording of the song so he and the band could record it in the studio.

 

Kihn noted that Springsteen’s diction isn’t always clear and he thought he said “you deserve so much more than squirrels,” so that’s how he sang it.  Springsteen heard his version and told him “there aren’t any squirrels in the song.”  The correct lyrics are “you deserve so much more than this girl.”  Kihn decided to sing both versions for the crowd.

 

Little anecdotes like that is what made the evening so entertaining.

 

Before he went into his biggest hit, “Jeopardy” he said that people still come up to him and say, “Play that Weird Al song.”   He noted that people think that he copied Weird Al’s song, instead of Weird Al parodying his song. He said that it was ok because that song put two of his children through college and that he still receives “mailbox money” from Weird Al.

 

The show ended with the ever popular “The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em)” which included a big sing-a-long.

 

Kihn and Berry returned to encore with a great cover of Dylan’s “Knocking On Heaven’s Door.”

 

Great music, great stories and an entertaining performer made for an enjoyable Saturday night.

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Review and photos by Greg Drugan

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