Lightning apparently struck the Rialto Theatre downtown during Sunday's brief afternoon monsoon.
Hours later, Vermont indie rocker Grace Potter delivered her own version of lightning with all the flash and rumble of the real deal during a two-hour show.
It was her first-ever solo gig at the Rialto, but it was not the first time she has faced this audience, which on Sunday loosely filled the Rialto. Her band Grace Potter and the Nocturnals has been a frequent flier to the Rialto over the years and Potter told the crowd she feels a kinship to our desert and her fans here.
She has dubbed her first solo tour the “Magical Midnight Road Show” mainly because she doesn't know how else to bill it. She's going solo, but she has the core of her Nocturnals band on stage with her along with several more musicians. That did indeed make for a pretty magical Sunday night in a hyped-up-on-adrenaline sort of way. Calling Potter's show wildly raucous is only half the story. Potter was on overdrive from the moment she came on stage in high heeled boots and a sparkling mini-dress that hiked up as she put on dance moves borrowed from Mick Jagger — she joined Jagger and the Rolling Stones on stage in Potter's native Vermont earlier this summer. She also had a little Stevie Nicks circa 1980s "White Wing Dove" mysticism to her moves.
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The dancing was part of the overall package that is "Grace Potter, Solo Artist." Her backup band — a bigger incarnation of The Nocturnals with whom she has toured and recorded 13 years — produced a big, bold sound, whether on some of the Nocturnals's biggest hits including "Apologies" and "Paris (Ohh La La)" or cuts from her debut solo album "Midnight," which comes out Friday.
Potter must have felt pretty much at home with the Rialto crowd because she dug deeper into "Midnight" than she has on other tour dates. One of the first songs of her two-hour set was "Biggest Fan," which had some 1960s girl-pop feel to it. She also performed "Empty Heart," a soulful rocker that recalls a bit of Janis Joplin and Melissa Etheridge; and "Your Girl," a thirtysomething followup to Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl."
But her deep and rich Nocturnals catalogue took her to the dance and earned her the largest applause Sunday night: the soulful "Low Road," the giddy Paris (Ohh La La)," the piano ballad "Apologies," which Potter sang with her opening act Ryland Baxter; and "Stars."
