Gavin DeGraw

Gavin DeGraw hasn’t made a major chart-topper in awhile, but you wouldn’t know it when the crowd gathered in front of then Trestle’s stage at KAABOO. It first looked like hundreds, then out of nowhere…seconds before the lights came on, the crowd ballooned to a couple thousands fans, packed in like sardines, standing around in the Del Mar paddock area. Then…the lights came on and the pop singer stepped out on stage singing one of his most well known hits, “Chariot.” The multi-instrument professional singer/songwriter had a beautiful piano out on stage with him as he banged out solos and melodies alike.

I had a vantage point nearly 40 feet above the action as the crowd swayed back and forth to the rhythmic chord progression and swooning melodies falling gracefully off of the stage. The entire amassing of people was singing in unison to the famed track as a light cue from the stage made them the lead singer of the chorus. It amazed me how easy it was for Gavin to control this crowd of people with a simple light gesture. A smooth and seamless transition took him nearly a decade into the future with a track off of his Make a Move album, “Best I Ever Had.”

This toe-tapping tune sent the crowd into a frenzy as Gavin danced around on-stage, showing the 40 year old still had his moves, along with his voice. The tracks bounced back and forth all over his decade long career of six studio albums, giving the audience what they wanted…all of him! Not many musicians can claim to have thousands of people singing your songs back to you, but DeGraw sure can. It was one song after another as the pop star singer with plenty of soul tore up the stage. I didn’t want to leave my perch to go and see the next band, but sorry Gavin…Aerosmith is getting ready to make his first appearance in over ten years and I have to fight through your crowd. Even though your first single WAS selected as the theme song to a major HIT TV show…

“Making Love with the Radio On” is a new track off of his 2016 Something Worth Saving album that most of the audience wasn’t familiar with; however, the light rock track was well received by the audience as the quickly learned the hook and sang along. Gavin finished his set with the song that put him on the map, “I Don’t Want To Be,” the Top Ten hit single from his debut album Chariot. The quality of sound coming out of his backing musicians was on-point as the band powered through the hits and deep tracks from the past decade. The majority of the set list was all Gavin himself, with only a couple of covers…including the Twenty One Pilots hit track “Ride” and Christian Rock band NEEDTOBREATHE’s track “Brother.”

During his encore, Gavin played through his newest track to hit the charts, “She Sets The World On Fire” from his new album before finishing with a Beatles tune…”Hey Jude.” The pop star with plenty of soul pleased the multitude of concert-goers at this years KAABOO Del Mar festival, leaving this music fan hoping to see him back again next year.