Jayhawks reunion soars at the Paradise

Music Review

October 20, 2011|By Sarah Rodman, Globe Staff

Mark Olson leads the Jayhawks at the Paradise Rock Club on Tuesday night.… (JOSH REYNOLDS FOR THE BOSTON…)

THE JAYHAWKS

With Rayland Baxter

At: Paradise Rock Club, Tuesday

For fans of the Jayhawks, Tuesday night’s show at the Paradise was the answer to a prayer. A reunion of the band’s classic lineup - including the return of cofounder Mark Olson after more than a decade away - played a coolly shimmering 95-minute set that reminded those in the packed house of everything that originally made them fall in love with the Minnesota roots rock outfit.

Here were the gorgeous, fluid solos of Gary Louris, the carefully arranged layers of instrumentation - Olson’s acoustic and Louris’s electric guitar, Karen Grotberg’s rich keyboards, Marc Perlman’s taut bass, Tim O’Reagan’s impeccable time-keeping - and of course the signature Louris/Olson harmonies conveying wistful tunes of hope and heartbreak.

The Jayhawks covered a lot of ground from the pastoral-to-rocking “Closer to Your Side’’ to the scrappy, garage rock strut of “High Water Blues’’ to the jangly, surging “Blue.’’ The dusty ballad “Tampa to Tulsa’’ served as a nice vocal showcase for O’Reagan.

The quintet played a handful of tracks from its new album “Mockingbird Time,’’ several of which compared favorably to their predecessors, especially the jaunty first single “She Walks in So Many Ways.’’

If there were complaints to be lodged they had more to do with the set list than the performance, including the absence of one of the band’s best, and best-known, songs “Waiting for the Sun’’ and the near complete disregard for the music the group made following Olson’s departure.

Perhaps it is a gesture toward Olson, but it’s a disappointing one from the standpoint of a fan of those albums, which not only had some great tracks but spawned a few semi-hits that likely brought new listeners into the Jayhawks’ nest, including “Save It for a Rainy Day’’ and “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me.’’

Of course, it’s impossible to fulfill everyone’s fantasy set list, but those omissions felt especially curious given that the band played two covers. While an encore take of the vintage ballad “Love Hurts’’ once again highlighted the sublime intersection of Louris and Olson’s distinctively reedy voices, hearing them intertwine on one of their own songs would’ve been just as, if not more, satisfying.

Sarah Rodman can be reached at srodman@globe.com.