Phillip Phillips’ Perfect Summer Night In Vancouver

There is a reason why Phillip Phillips fans are travelling far and wide to see his shows: they just keep getting better and one is never enough. But this time Vancouver fans didn’t have to go very far as Phillip came back for the second time in just a few months to play the opening show of the PNE’s Summer Night Concerts series.

Casual fair goers and fans started to gather at the PNE’s West Jet Amphitheatre early in the evening to wait for Phillip, who made his way to the stage just after 8:00 pm. There was no opening band, so the fans quickly got what they came to hear, a full 1 hour 40 minutes set that included songs from both his albums and some of his most famous covers.

“Let’s dance and have a good time!” Phillip told the crowd as he unassumingly took the stage, the sun still shining behind him. He then launched into “Searchlight,” the opening track from his new album Behind The Light and then into the energetic “Get Up Get Down,” two of his most upbeats songs. But as the evening turned into night, Phillip took us to a few darker and deeper places as well, and we were just as happy to follow him there too.

It’s a well known fact by now that Phillip has assembled an insanely talented band, and that his shows are as much about beautiful storytelling as they are about pure and simple jamming. That was on full display at the PNE show. To single out any instrument would be almost unfair, but last night both Bobby Sparks on keys and organ and Errol Cooney on guitar really elevated songs to special new places. Particular mention goes to “Trigger,” which was incredibly moving with delicate touches from Cooney and lush dramatic effects from Sparks. The best part was perhaps a new cool and intense jam at the end of the song; this is after all what some fans are coming back for, show after show. The incredible Jason Thomas on drums, JJ Smith on bass and Joel Behrman on trumpet and trombone completed the band, each shining at many different times during the show. Through it all was Phillip with his boundless energy and electricity, which never detracts from his impeccable delivery and authentic emotion. He is a true captivating and magical performer.

Phillip played the hits (“Raging Fire,” “Gone Gone Gone”) as well as his new “official” single “Unpack Your Heart” (“whatever that means” he told us with a laugh), the incendiary “Fly,” and my all-time favourite “Man On The Moon.” In between songs, new quiet and atmospheric intros or outros kept us guessing and falling deeper into the night’s spell. And in a repeat of last time’s most magical moment, the Vancouver crowd once again lit up with hundreds of lights to accompany the beautiful lyrics of “Tell Me A Story,” which Phillip made even more special by adding some lines from “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.”

As if all of this wasn’t enough, Phillip closed his set with his “Lollipop” mash up, a virtuoso blending of covers by Lil’ Wayne, Led Zeppelin, Eminem and DJ Khaled that drove fans into a true frenzy of pure musical bliss. By the time he came back for his encore with the haunting “A Fool’s Dance,” there is no doubt that Phillip had the crowd on the palm of his hand. Of course, he closed the show with “Home” and led us to sing along with him for one last time. We wished we could have kept singing all night long.

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Check out some photos and videos from the show, as well as some pics of Phillip’s cool Meet & Greet earlier that day.

Set List
Searchlight
Get Up Get Down
Lead On
Raging Fire
Fly
Man On The Moon
Gone Gone Gone
Unpack Your Heart
Tell Me A Story
Trigger>>>
Where We Came From
Lollipop

A Fool’s Dance
Home





PP Meet & Greet Vancouver 4 PP Meet & Greet Vancouver 5

Thank you Claudia, Janet, Melissa and Linda.
Featured photo by Joanne.

Phillip Phillips At Lucky Strike Denver

Phillip Phillips brought his guitar, and his bowling shoes, to Lucky Strike Denver last Saturday for a special acoustic performance and CD signing. And fans in attendance were very lucky indeed as Errol Cooney and Dave Eggar, Phillip’s guitarist and cello player, joined him for the exclusive acoustic performance.

The trio performed three songs, two of them from Phillip’s new album Behind The Light. Though the show was scheduled to start at 1:00 pm, fans–including many from out of state there to see Phillip’ show at Red Rocks later that evening–started lining up as early as 7:30 in the morning to make sure they got a good spot inside the venue. The dedication of fans paid off, as they were treated to an incredibly rocking and inspired performance.

Check out some videos and photos from the event below!

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Phillip Phillips Steps Behind The Light And Emerges Triumphantly

We waited, we listened to the snippets, we counted down the days, and finally, it is here. To the sheer joy of Phillip Phillips fans everywhere, Behind The Light was released at midnight on Monday; within an hour it had reached number 1 on the Pop Charts on iTunes, a testament to the huge anticipation and the incredible support from Phillip’s ever growing fan base. It’s only been a few hours and a few listens, but I feel I can say without hesitation that Behind The Light has exceeded all my expectations and hopes, and keeps proving that Phillip Phillips has arrived and is here to stay.

It’s easy to make comparisons, but it’s inevitable to look back and see how much Phillip has accomplished in just two short years and admire his steady and assured growth as a musician and as a songwriter. And in Behind The Light we see him not only expand his song writing vocabulary but bring into the studio the energy and exhilaration that have come to define his live performances.

I feel that confidence has always been an important quality of Phillip’s music. But where you saw the confidence you also saw the effort behind some of the songs on The World From The Side Of The Moon. In this new group of songs you can feel not only a new maturity but a new ease in his songwriting, a more direct way of expressing his ideas while still conveying the same or more complexity. This goes both for the lyrics and the music, but in particular for the lyrics. Phillip has said that the new album is about growing up, about both the fear and the beauty we experience as we get older. But another recurrent theme is truthfulness, which he explores through many images of darkness and light, fire and release. So though musically the album may be very different from song to song, the lyrics unify it in tone and feeling.

The album starts with “Searchlight,” a song whose rousing beat and background vocals contrasts with delicate lyrics about healing and redemption. It’s a perfect introduction to the journey the music will take you: there is light and darkness in every song, mournful undercurrents to the most hopeful of songs and light and hope shinning in the most sorrowful ones.

By the time Phillips sings “I see myself again/Behind the Light I flicker” in “Alive Again,” we are well into the themes of the album, the words here conveying the idea of what he is when in darkness, the true side of himself that nobody gets to see. And in “Unpack Your Heart” he touches again on acknowledging what is hidden, of revealing ourselves as we are to each other, of letting go without fear:

“Meet me where the sunlight ends/Meet me where the truth never ends/Bring all that you’re scared to defend.”

I tend to be moved more easily by music than lyrics, but this album contains so many intimate, carefully crafted lyrics, that I think they really define Behind The Light; nothing here is an afterthought. The world From The Moon already showed that Phillip has a beautiful way with words and here we can see his eye as writer sharpening and blooming, finding just the right words to create immediate images in your head that break your heart or fill it with hope (“Alive Again”), convey the passion of unending love (“Raging Fire”), the pain that creeps into a tortured mind (“Trigger”), and the heavy heartedness of fear (the quiet, repetitive mantra of “everything will be better now” in “My Boy”).

Musically, Behind The Light is very diverse, going from the stripped but incredibly rich sound in a song such as “Face,” to the sparse percussion and baroque sounding strings in “My Boy,” to sleek, intricate drums and incendiary pedal steel guitar in “Fly;” each song is allowed to be what it needs to be.  Phillip has said many times that with Behind The Light he set out to do an album that would capture his “live band” sound and I think he really succeeded in doing that; the album has an incredible, organic energy throughout. A good example is “Don’t Trust Me,” a fantastic funky song (with some of the most introspective lyrics on the album) which really captures the live feel of the band, with amazing bass and horns that will be explosive in concert. As always, Phillip’s vocals are passionate and stirring, with subtle inflections and phrasing that brought tears to my eyes more than once.

Looking at the liner notes we can see Phillip reunited with the same team that made his first album such a great success: producer Gregg Wattenberg, and writers Derek Fuhrmann, Todd Clark and David Ryan Harris. It also includes an amazing new collaboration with Finian Greenall of Fink on “My Boy.” An added thrill is seeing Phillip listed as a producer on the album and the excellent members of his band playing on it, Errol Cooney on guitar, Philip Dizack on trumpet, Dave Eggar on cello, the incredible Jason Thomas on drums, “JJ” Smith on bass and Bobby Sparks on keyboards.

Most people will be downloading this album, but if you happen to own a physical copy, you will get to enjoy the amazing art by Rob Carmichael, which brilliantly captures the theme of darkness and light, shadows and fire throughout. Take a look at the images as you listen to the album and you’ll see the themes beautifully play out, poignantly, until the end.

I am the ultimate romantic, and as a fan, I care about artistic integrity and depth. Behind The Light has both–I never doubted it would. With this album Phillip has opened up and shown us what is behind the light; what we find there is beautiful to see.

Review by Andreina Romero

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Phillip Phillips Performs at “Raise the Roof” Gala

Last Saturday, Phillip Phillips took a break from the studio to perform at the “Raise the Roof” gala for American Family Children’s Hospital. Proceeds from the event benefited the Children’s Hospital Sick Kids Can’t Wait campaign.

Phillip’s appearance was sponsored by American Family Insurance and contributed to raise over a half a million dollars for the Children’s Hospital.

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For this very special performance, Phillip brought along his guitar player Errol Cooney, who has also been working in the studio on Phillip’s upcoming second album. 

Take a look at Phillip and Errol performing Gone Gone Gone at the gala.

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Video by Lynnette Bob Sharrer
Photos: American Family Children’s Hospital

Phillip Phillips At Walmart Soundcheck

Phillip recently visited the Walmart Soundcheck studio to do a very special performance and interview. Phillip, together with guitarist Errol Cooney, rocked the songs in another inspired performance.
[floated align=”right”]Setlist:
1. Man On The Moon
2. Where We Came From
3. Gone Gone Gone
4. A Fool’s Dance
5. Home[/floated]

During the interview, Phillip talked about his passion for performing live and the difference between playing with a full band or just acoustically with another guitar player. He also talked about songwriting and how he hopes the next album will be completely written or co-written by him.

Check out the wonderful videos right here!

Man on the Moon

Where We Came From

Gone Gone Gone

A Fool’s Dance

Home

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On Playing Live 
[quote style=”2″]To me, if you can’t play a song live then there’s no point of putting it on the album. I like to change up the songs and make ’em different.[/quote]
On Writing 
[quote style=”2″]I’m all about the writing. I wanna have a connection with it so when I get up on stage I feel something towards it and I can go back and remember why I wrote it[/quote]
On How it Began 
[quote style=”2″]I picked up a guitar when I was 14 and fell in love with it. I had a little karaoke machine I would play CD’s or cassette tapes out of. I didn’t start singing until about 17 or 18 and that’s when it really inspired me to start writing.[/quote]
On New Fame
[quote style=”2″]I don’t know how to take it sometimes. I’m trying to figure it all out. I say it every night I’m just thankful for all the fans. I’d never be here without ’em.[/quote]

Source: Wallmart Soundcheck

“Where We Came From” Gets Another Spectacular Video

Phillip Phillips has been very busy lately promoting “Where We Came From”, the third single from his album The World From The Side Of The Moon and the first one where he has writing credits. Last week, Phillips surprised his fans with a beautiful video of the song featuring him and his band performing the song live during his stop at the Alaska State Fair last summer.

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