A Sublime Evening

It was a night of nostalgia for me when my friend Thomas and I entered the Howard Theatre. A band that I discovered back in college in 1989 was touring in support of a remastered release of their album Davy Jones’ Locker. And the show was so, so, so, sublime.

The Ocean Blue opened their show with “Denmark”, a soothing tune that set the tone for an evening of wistful and gorgeous, shimmering pop music.

The boys from Hershey, Pennsylvania did not disappoint the crowd, as they brought out some classics like “Ballerina Out of Control”, a dreamy song that reminded me why I fell in love with their music. The Ocean Blue established themselves as one of the finest alternative bands of the late 80s and early 90s.

Lead singer/songwriter David Schelzel still can hit all the notes and clearly seemed to enjoy dipping deep into their catalog of songs, strumming his guitar while swaying with each tune. The band could have easily stuck with their hits and well-known tracks but showing great confidence is what I love about seeing bands in concert. They hit a stretch of tracks from their underrated Kings and Queens/Knaves and Thieves including the fantastic “Paraguay My Love”.

“Mercury” is one of my favorites from the band and the live version was spectacular - with shimmering guitars and gentle piano backed by the fantastic drumming from Peter Anderson (who we got to meet before the show while grabbing a beer next door).

Later on, while holding the room in the palm of their hands, the band kicked into their most famous songs: “Drifting, Falling” (sad that there was no saxophone), “Ask Me Jon”, “Sublime”, “Vanity Fair” and the truly fantastic “Between Something and Nothing”.

They closed the whole show with a fantastic cover of “Pale Shelter”, a Tears For Fears song. It was a cool choice to end a cool evening with a band that sounds as good as they did when I first spun their album back in the day.