Down-to-Earth Blues Traveler Revs It Up

Attention spans may be shrinking these days, but there was no evidence of this when Blues Traveler got down to business at the Greek Theatre on Wednesday. From the opening phrases of John Popper’s first harmonica solo, the near-capacity crowd communed with the group through thick and thin for close to three hours.

Considering the sprawling, Grateful Dead-like nature of the group’s music, there were surprisingly few stretches in which the jamming rambled, and despite an intermission about two-thirds through the set, the musicians never lost their momentum. The quartet prudently interspersed improvisational excursions with more structured, pop-oriented songs such as “Hook” and “Carolina Blues”--which isn’t to say their jamming didn’t yield some compelling moments.

Popper strives to do for harmonica what Stevie Ray Vaughan (among others) did for guitar--tap the blues potential of his instrument in a rock context. He even shares Vaughan’s reverence for Jimi Hendrix. At one point Popper unleashed an explosive solo that evoked many of the legendary guitarist’s stylings and closed with an exact musical quotation from Hendrix’s famous rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Later, actor Bruce Willis played dueling harp with Popper during a rowdy rendering of Muddy Waters’ “Rock Me.”

By the time everyone called it a night, Blues Traveler had demonstrated that an earnest, down-to-earth performance can be as engaging as one fueled by high concepts and fashionable flash.