Photo by Tayhlor Stephenson / Lifestyles Editor
A natural spotlight portrayed by the sky’s blood-orange sun shone down on Public Square Park as Lightning 100 hosted their final Live on the Green 2017 Sunday night after an unexpected rescheduling of Friday night’s show due to Hurricane Harvey.
Shel, Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors and Sheryl Crow all made the stage their home before leaving fans with Live on the Green 2018 anticipation.
Shel engages audience with musicality
Folk-pop band Shel, a Colorado-based band comprised of four sisters whose names (Sarah, Hannah, Eva and Liza Holbrook) make up the acronym of their title, kicked the evening hours off with a steady instrumentally-inviting presence.
The sisters shared many of their hits from their well-approved 2016 album, “Just Crazy Enough,” with singles such as “You Could Be My Baby” and “Moonshine Hill.”
The strumming of Eva’s guitar strings and Sarah’s plucking of the violin paired nicely with the soft echo of Hannah’s keys and Liza’s heavy beating of the drums.
As a team, the sisters blended their musicality and transformed their individual talents into a masterpiece of sound. To top it off, Liza wowed the audience with serious beatboxing talent that fans bounced to.
Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors share album love
Tennessee-native Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors’ set began with “Tightrope,” a song from their 2015 album, “Medicine.” From there, he and his band leaped ahead a couple years with the performance of “Fight for Love,” a single off the band’s newest 2017 album, “Souvenir.” The band wrapped up their 3-track intro by showcasing their 2013 album, “Good Light” with “Another Man’s Shoes.”
Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors continued to lead the audience down a journey of visiting various albums, but they were not alone in doing so. Holcomb welcomed his wife, Ellie, to the stage early on, and she made warm of her welcome by providing soft vocals to songs like “Hourglass,” a single off the band’s 2011 record, “Chasing Somebody.”
Midway through the band’s performance, Holcomb shared that his father has been in the hospital, which led to a “Get well, Hamp (Holcomb’s father)” video, captured by Holcomb himself.
They effortlessly continued their trek of albums until Holcomb cleared the stage of everyone but himself.
“If you don’t like this song, I don’t care,” Holcomb said. “It will be over in like 3 1/2 minutes.”
Alone, Holcomb picked guitar strings and sang “Wild World,” a newly released song off “Souvenir,” as if nobody was watching.
“It’s a dream to open for Sheryl Crow on a beautiful night,” Holcomb said just before finishing his and The Neighbors’ set with “Fire and Dynamite.”
Sheryl Crow leaves audience wanting more
Singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow completely met her astronomical crowd’s expectations with a spunky jog onto stage and theatrical rendition of her 1996 hit “Everyday Is a Winding Road” off her self-titled album, “Sheryl Crow.”
She smoothly transitioned into crowd-favorites “All I Wanna Do” and “My Favorite Mistake” before the crowd roared with an immersive chant of “Thank you, Sheryl” in appreciation of Crow’s commitment to rescheduling the highly anticipated headlining show.
She captivated her audience with hits the crowd treated as sing-a-longs. By the time she reached the midway point of her set with a performance of “Can’t Cry Anymore,” Crow yodeled until she couldn’t yodel anymore. She topped the performance off with an impressively long, in-tune note at the end of the song.
The fun wouldn’t soon end, though.
Crow led an impressive, hyped-up instrumental, which included an intense harmonica solo by Crow, with wicked light effects, all of which was complimented by the heavy beat of the drums to keep the audience on their feet.
“What about this band, everybody?” Crow asked before transitioning into Grammy Award-winning “If It Makes You Happy.”
To wrap up her headlining gig, Crow gave her Texas fans some love.
“This is in honor of all those people in Texas and the sun coming out finally” Crow said in an introduction to her 2002 hit “Soak Up the Sun,” originally found on her 2002 album, “C’Mon C’Mon.”
As Crow’s set slowed down, her fans did not. They demanded a two-track encore from her, including a production of “I Shall Believe.”
Crow, along with Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors and Shel, made next year’s show one to look forward to.
Follow Tayhlor Stephenson on Twitter at @tayhlor_s.
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