I rarely turn down an opportunity to see live music so when I was offered a ticket to this, I barely paid attention to what I had agreed to. I did not realise that Jeff Goldblum, the actor, makes music. In fact, he was promoting his third jazz album, Still Blooming, with the Jeff Goldblum & the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. Jeff talked about his recent role in Wicked. His co-stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo featured on the album, though sadly they didn’t make an appearance on this night in Kingston.
Shed Seven announced a tour to celebrate the 30 year anniversary of their debut album Change Giver, released in 1994. Their two nights at Pryzm were postponed from October last year to January 2025.
Listening to the album before the show, it turns out that I’d probably not heard Change Giver in full back in the day. It was released just a bit before I discovered indie music and was quickly followed by A Maximum High in 1996, which contains the ‘early’ hits that I remember, like Getting Better, Going for Gold and On Standby.
The band played Change Giver in full, with Speakeasy and Dolphin as particular highlights. Great energy in the room, with frontman Rick Witter chatting to the crowd.
The second part of the show was billed as a ‘greatest hits’. These included the aforementioned songs from A Maximum High, plus hits from later in the 90s, including Disco Down and Chasing Rainbows. There were only a couple that I didn’t recognise and it seems likely that these were newer songs, but they also sounded great.
I bumped into some acquaintances who told me that Change Giver was the soundtrack to their university years and they had even been to the show at the same venue the night before. Great to see Shed Seven inspire such passion. I enjoyed the trip back to the 90s sound and hearing Change Giver in full. If there’s an anniversary tour of A Maximum High in 2026, I might just have to check them out again.
Blue Roses Fanzine 2.0 