Kenny Loggins Can’t Rile the Greek Crowd

“You all are so polite ,” Kenny Loggins gently admonished his audience Friday night at the Greek Theatre. But the crowd, far from the Greek’s 6,000 capacity, may just have been waiting for something worth getting unruly about. To get a rise out of them, Loggins threw in a four letter word or two during his between-song patter, and offered up a mildly off-color account of how he came to write the 1973 Ann Murray hit, “Love Song.” It didn’t make the evening any less bland, but it did seem to break down the walls of propriety between Loggins and his fans.

Moments during the evening when the tall, lanky performer came across best were on a cappella renderings with his band of Dion and the Belmonts’ “Come Go With Me” and on a brief snippet of Don & Juan’s “What’s Your Name,” two ‘60s-era rock ‘n’ roll songs that conjured up images of cool dudes harmonizing on a moonlit street corner. But Loggins’ scat-inflected, vocal interplay with saxophonist Mark Wilson on “Celebrate Me Home” emphasized how far he is from being a really dynamic, go-for-broke singer. His approach is pleasant, but nothing you’d want to get unruly over.