Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band Performed at the Belly Up in Solana Beach, CA on Thursday night. The set list from the show is now available.
From the Orange County Register: “Jimmy Buffett steers tight ship into Belly Up”
En route to their next Vegas bash, the perennial favorite and his Coral Reefer Band sailed into Solana Beach for a unique warm-up, their first nearby club date in decades.
“It’s only been 32 years since we’ve been here,” Jimmy Buffett pointed out at the start of Thursday’s rarest of rarities: a Southern California club gig from the party captain and his Coral Reefer Band. “Last time I played here I think there was no Internet.”
Nor were there smartphones capable of capturing his entire performance, as so many did here – back then you’d have been tossed out for such blatant bootlegging. It was a technologically simpler time in 1981, when the compact disc and Atari videogames were just coming into existence.
“After doing this for 40 years,” he mentioned, dating an even lengthier career back to his first major album, 1973’s A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, “it still feels good to sell out in two minutes.”
What set this show apart from all others, though, was not only its small scale – who knew you could fit a dozen people on that stage? – but also the night’s prevailing mood. Buffett, whose movements are fairly minimal even at larger places, was noticeably animated and keen to involve devotees, grabbing a cheeseburger hat from one, donning a lampshade creation from another. The cramped space also tightened an already unerring band, to the point that you could feel them push the feel of well-worn tunes into fresh grooves.