Incubus @ Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, NY

Live Reviews | Jul 21st, 2017

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Date: July 16th 2017
Opening Band: Jimmy Eat World, Atlas Genius

Alternative 90’s came to Bethel Woods Center for the arts this past weekend in the form of the 8 Tour featuring 90’s rockers Incubus and Jimmy Eat World backed up by the nightly tour openers Atlas Genius.

Oft times the opening acts can, and have been criminally overlooked or dismissed, and on a night where the weather was absolutely perfect for an outdoor show
in Bethel Woods, Atlas Genius played to a fairly sparse crowd. To their credit they seemed like nice lads and genuinely happy to be there at all. They played with vigorous energy and enthusiasm and the small crowd (which included some devote fans) lapped it up. So those that didn’t get there early (most of you! and yes, you) You missed out.

Jimmy Eat World came on stage around 8pm and immediately saluted everyone who was about to rock (everyone). What was apparent is that their power pop sounded just as good as it did “back in the day.” The stage set was simple but excellent, they had some simple street lights to either side of the band and a screen projecting various images behind them, never distracting and somehow fitting in with the music. As their set drew on I’m not sure why a band like Green Day made it so big (and continue to) and Jimmy Eat World seemingly don’t get the full credit and spotlight that (I feel) they deserve. The sing selection was upbeat, poppy, catchy and crowd pleasing. Needless to say, they saved arguably their best song “the middle” for the end (and not, ahem, the middle of their set) queue the mass singalong and feel good power pop galore. The stage was well and truly warmed up and pumped for the headliners Incubus.

After a 25 minute or so intermission after Jimmy Eat Worlds set, the lights dimmed and Incubus came on stage, with a slightly more elaborate stage set up which included a cool circular screen that showed distorted live images of the band AND the audience.

From the offset however, it was clear that this was a different beast than Jimmy Eat World, The opener was slow and somber and not really the best tune they could have chosen to start the show with, “Glitterbomb” being that song. The first sing that the crowd, or at least several of those around us, responded to was “Nimble Bastard,” I got the vibe from the frontman Brandon Boyd that he took himself WAY too seriously, he resembled the late, great Chris Cornell in all but sound.

While they were obviously passionate about their music and their sound it says a lot when a shows biggest moment of the night is when the artist perform someone else’s song, in this case it was when they slipped in a verse of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” into their own song of the same name, needless to say a big singalong ensued. Of course when they played arguably the best song “Drive” the crowd went slightly mental too!

Boyd did his best Chili Peppers impression a while later when the t-shirt came off but failed to rock nearly as hard as the Chili Ceppers do. The show finished with a prolonged “Aqueous Transmission” which had a trippy, “Woodstocky” vibe to it. All in all they were decent, just gave me the feeling they were way too onto their own self importance and their newer stuff was a tad stale.

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