Reviews of Thursday’s Mansfield Show

Both the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe have reviews of Thursday night’s Jimmy Buffett show at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts. According to the articles it was Buffett’s 50th time playing at the venue.

Boston Herald: “For Jimmy Buffett fans, show is Paradise”

“What’s up with this recession?” Jimmy Buffett asked in his third song, “Summerzcool,” last night at the Comcast Center. “I refuse to participate!”

Well, OK, who can’t get behind that?!

But wait: He’s a pseudo beach-bum-cum-multimillionaire. Of course, he’s not too affected by the recession.

The barefoot and ber-muda-shorts-clad Buffett brought a two-set, 2-hour show (also called Summerzcool) to the Mansfield venue for the 50th time. He was joined by his 10-piece Coral Reefer Band, as well as, briefly, James Taylor’s daughter Sally.

Boston Globe – “Buffett’s breezy, feel-good vibe still resonates”

Last night was Jimmy Buffett’s 50th concert at the venue he still calls Great Woods, and odds are good a chunk of the 17,000 or so fans at the Comcast Center attended all of them. And who can blame them? Buffett is more than a tunesmith. He’s a walking lifestyle, a tuneful outlook, the barefoot figurehead in a laid-back philosopher’s club whose grass-skirted, Hawaiian-shirted members make annual pilgrimages to a virtual reality with its own breezy theme song. About a frozen drink.

Odds are also good that the 50 shows haven’t varied much from one to the next, and that’s precisely as it should be. Some artists trade in innovation and evolution; Buffett’s product relies on feel-good reliability. Even a pair of topical new songs, “Summerzcool’’ and “We’ve Got a Lot to Drink About,’’ address the recession with a signature bit of advice: Have a cocktail.

Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band will play a second show at the Comcast Center on Saturday.

Update – A third review, this one from the Sun Chronicle: “Once again, Buffett brings paradise to Mansfield”