It's always a great time watching Jimmy Buffett perform! Heck, it's always a good time listening to Jimmy Buffett CDs as the bright sunshine cascades down, and the margaritta's flow like water! And tonight was no different as both aspects of a JB experience were on show from about 2pm onwards!

From around that time, the parking lot at the open air concert was packed full with partygoers galore! Extravagant costumes, tropical attire and so much alcohol it could stop a shark from fifty feet away, the show itself was over 6 hours away and yet 95% of the adoring fans were already starting to get prepared for it!

"I'm here to relieve your stress" are Jimmy's first real words of the night as he proceeds to fire out the opening musical salvos of the night: 'Great Heart,' 'Coconut Telegraph,' 'Pencil Thin Mustache,' 'In The Shelter' and 'Son Of A Son Of A Sailor' were all brought to the fore. As the barefooted-Buffett continued to bring his delightful, and colorful 'Tiki Time Tour' to the masses, he also brought a Samoan fire dancer and other lithe dancers to brighten the stage in front of the 13-member Coral Reefer Band! Late on in the set, including the first encore, they twisted and turned to both 'If I Had a Saxophone' and James Taylor's 'Mexico' before scuttling back into the set thereafter. Buffett doesn't do things by half and knows that people pay a lot of money for his tickets. He's not here to screw anybody out of sight nor sound and proves that in spades the entire evening.

Wearing a bright yellow shirt with baby blue shorts and yellow wrist bands, Jimmy sings his way to the first intermission by including such songs as 'Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes,' 'Honey Do,' 'Margaritaville,' 'One Particular Harbour' and the ultimate classic sing-a-long, 'Cheeseburger in Paradise.'

As we head into the second half of the show, Buffett fans (aka Parrotheads) have always loved the fact that JB plays some obscure album tracks each time he comes to town. Tonight, he never let them down either as 'Great Heart' (1984), Mac McAnally's 'It's My Job' (1983) and a reggae version of 'In the Shelter,' from 1977 quenched their thirst. Whilst on stage Jimmy also makes the comment about all the outfits he sees out in the crowd, "I wish I could take credit for all those outfits out there! Thank you very much." To which the crowd roar back their collective approval! He also keeps referring to this newly-titled DTE Energy Theatre as it's old name of Pine Knob. Something, he says, that he will always do as it will always be Pine Knob to him! Next came Buffett and the Reefers' relatively bouncy version of Fred Neil's 'Everybody's Talkin', before 'A Pirate Looks At 40,' 'Far Side of the World,' 'Mexico,' 'Fins' before the final song of the set 'Volcano' is sung.

But, as explained, Jimmy is not one for 'stiffing' his loving and loyal gathering and so for the first encore we get both the aforementioned 'Saxaphones' and the Stephen Stills tour favorite number, 'Southern Cross'. The second, and last encore then provides us with 'Pacing The Cage.'

Review by Russell A. Trunk
Photos courtesy of the WWW