by Sean Reiter
4 Non Blondes lead singer Linda Perry made it clear early on that she and her band had no interest in dwelling on the past as they blasted through a 14-song set at the first of their two nights at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. After a blistering start featuring new songs “Nowhere”, “Strange Places” and “Push & Shove”. Perry let the audience know that material from the 1992 explosive debut (and up until now, only) album “Bigger, Better, Faster, More” would largely be ignored. “I don’t even know who ‘Old Mr. Heffer’ was…” Perry told the crowd – referring to a song off their original album. “I’m loving these new songs and love playing with this band and thank you for listening.”
The choice to keep all eyes on the future with little romance to the past was gutsy, but the audience seemed to welcome the intention. Indeed, the setlist Wednesday night was composed of 12 new songs, along with a cover of “Beautiful” (the Christina Aguillera mega-hit that Perry wrote and produced” and “that one song” – which referred to the chart-topping “What’s Up?” – which provided a dramatic singalong to the end of the main set.
Highlights of the night’s new material included “Live Forever” and “Drama Queen” a song that Perry shared was originally written for Courtney Love. “She’s one of the most brilliant people I’ve met, but she was too f#$ked up and high to record this. So, I took it away from her and now its a 4 Non Blondes Song.”
Perry diverse talents were on full display with her terrific frontwoman personality, intricate acoustic guitar and absolutely shredding electric guitar on songs like “Don’t Wanna'” and the blistering encore “Hollow.” For her version of “Beautiful”, Perry played and sang from a keyboard as the audience raised lights and cameras to the sky and were left to ably sing a few versses on their own.
The joy of being back in San Francisco on a stage that they came up on was obvious thoughout the night as smiles abounded among Perry, drummer Dawn Richardson, bassist Christa Hillhouse, guitarist Roger Rocha – along with an added 5th (and ironically blonde) member in guitarist Nick Maybury. “It’s really nice to be in this room. It’s been f#$king years,” Perry told the crowd before “What’s Up?”.
“When we reunited, we really wanted to play a smaller venue in San Francisco. Thank you for making this a wonderful evening. Now, don’t you f#$king hold back!” With that Perry strummed the oh so familiar opening notes as the crowd sang along lustily and camera phones filled the air (OK, I admit it – I had to video the chorus too!).
Earlier in the night, duo Marisol Werner and JD from Sacramento band The Willow Snags held the audience’s rapt attention in the opening slot and received an enthusiastic reception for their acoustic blues set.
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