Review: Gavin DeGraw at The Pageant

Touring in support of his newest release, Sweeter, Gavin DeGraw stole the show Tuesday night when he co-headlined at with season 7 winner of American Idol David Cook.

After a crowd-pleasing 30 minute opening set from Carolina Liar, DeGraw had the many ladies in attendance in the palm of his hand from the get-go as the opening notes of Degraw’s 2003 hit “Chariot” pumped through the speakers. 

DeGraw never addressed the August attack from three men that sent him to the hospital with a broken nose, concussion and other injuries during his 75 minute set, but seemed to show real gratitude and admiration for the support his fans have provided him throughout the ordeal. 

Due to the co-headlining aspect, DeGraw seemed a bit rushed swapping time usually delegated for small talk to fit in more songs into his set, only checking in a few times, “Feeling good? Because we feel good.” DeGraw said.

Although spending most of his set behind the piano, DeGraw would stray away from time to time to wander around the Pageant stage causing frenzies with the crowd up front when he’d reach out into the crowd.  During “Chemical Party,” DeGraw and his four piece backing band re-worked the track to inject a rather soulful medley of Bruno Mars’ hit “Grenade” at the end of the song which caused those in attendance to erupt in applause.  

The only misstep of the set was during his solo performance of “Spell It Out” which was co-written by Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic. As his band returned to the stage DeGraw said, “The beauty of playing a note that bad is that you’ll never do it again.” The audience quickly forgave the mistake and enjoyed the rest of his set and encore before David Cook took the stage to close out the evening. 

Gavin DeGraw Set list:

• Candy
• Chariot
• Sweeter
• Overrated
• I Have You To Thank
• Soldier
• In Love With A Girl
• Where You Are
• Follow Through
• Chemical Party
• Stay
• Spell It Out
• Run Every Time
• I Don’t Want To Be

Encore:

• Radiation
• Not Over You