Chuck Prophet appeared a little wary when he looked out at the seated, earlybird audience at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, essentially a hallway of the cavernous performing arts hall. There is some prestige to start a short tour at the hallowed national space—and though a few hundred were on hand to witness it live, it’s also amplified through an in-house video available worldwide for free streaming.
Prophet by now certainly knows how to shape a show; beginning some of his wistful rockers with amusing stories and always ready with an unexpected reference or lyric turn of phrase. He told of an odd fourth grade field trip near San Clemente in “Nixonland,” of a meeting at the power lines in “Womankind,” and a yearning for an alternate world where the New York Dolls were still around and he’d be “High as Johnny Thunders.”
Those three were from the latest album, the 2019 The Land That Time Forgot, whose songs fit nicely with his live standards, from an unseasonable “Summertime Thing” to “Doubter Out of Jesus (All Over You),” a tune he said he got to sing once on Late Night with David Letterman, when the reaction of his mother later was “It’s not my favorite song.”
The emphasis of his show were songs from his 21st century releases, the 2014 Night Surfer and Temple Beautiful, his 2012 stand out album dedicated to his hometown of San Francisco and its colorful people. There was nothing, though, from his first rate 2017 Bobby Fuller Died for Your Sins, perhaps because it’s more built for a band.
Prophet has played in a lot of configurations in recent years—rocking out with his band The Mission Express or playing solo, accompanied by his own acoustic guitar. For this twilight show, playing a baker’s dozen of his songs for just over an hour, he was joined by his wife Stephanie Finch, who was crucial in both sweet backup vocals and in framing the songs with a deft, stately keyboards.
As a duo, Prophet’s acoustic guitar largely stuck to rhythm, expanding to soloing in counterpoint to Finch when closing some songs. Finch was also important for moral support, trading knowing looks with him during songs and especially when each tune wrapped up. She was a key adviser, too, when Prophet was ready to plow ahead with their singalong to “Willie Mays is Up at Bat,” until she told him the somewhat placid audience, seated in its “PTA night configuration,” wasn’t quite ready (he did “Ford Econoline” instead).
Again, it wasn’t the optimum performing space—especially as noisy throngs started coming in at the other end of the hall for the road show performance of Frozen at the Opera House, going through the Disney-mandated metal detectors. “Keep it down back there!” Prophet called out at one point, only half joking.
But the crowd sufficiently warmed up after the paean to rock band van transportation, to provide the joyous ascending chorus for “Willie Mays is Up to Bat” and all was right with the world. And after the reaction to his concluding call and response “You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)” he knew he must have upped his parental approval: “Come on, mom! Look at me now: Kennedy Center, baby!”
And to the crowd, who really tried: “Thanks for giving us something to talk about in the van tomorrow.”
SETLIST
Tell Me Anything (Turn to Gold)
Wish Me Luck
High as Johnny Thunders
Doubter Out of Jesus (All Over You)
He Came from So Far Away (Red Man Speaks)
Summertime Thing
Womankind
Nixonland
Ford Econoline
Willie Mays is Up at Bat
The Left Hand and the Right Hand
Marathon
You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)
