Live Review: Pat Metheney Side-Eye III+ at Symphony Center • Chicago
Pat Metheney
Pat Metheny Side-Eye III+
Symphony Center
Chicago, IL
April 17, 2026
Review by Steven Kikoen, photos by Jim Snyder and Steven Kikoen
Pat Metheny first caught my attention back in the spring of 1978, when his self-titled album, Pat Metheny Group, was released on the ECM label and flew into the album bins of our beloved record store. Having decided two years earlier that jazz was way more hip than rock, my ubiquitous guitar and I made the joint decision to take a deep dive into jazz beginning in 1975/76. George Benson was all the rage—especially with his Bad Benson record on CTI—so I was all about Benson, Joe Pass, Return to Forever… you get the idea. With the release of Pat Metheny Group in ’78, followed by Metheny’s ’79 solo album New Chautauqua, and the Pat Metheny Group’s American Garage that same year, the jury was in—Metheny was it. To us, he was an overnight innovator: a new, original timbre on the instrument, incredible compositions that smacked of genius, and a writing partner in keyboardist Lyle Mays that made this genre-defying team irresistible.
Over the next three decades, Metheny—with and without the Pat Metheny Group—took jazz and wrapped it in Americana, Brazilian music, the avant-garde, minimalism, classical music, film scores, world music, and loop-based music… the list seemed endless. Metheny didn’t just expand jazz—he folded these disparate musical forms into a completely new musical language. Fast forward to 2026, and we see Metheny—at the beginning of his seventh decade—with the third iteration of his well-known Side-Eye Project: his chance to come full circle and give back to exceptional young musicians what he himself received from older musicians in Kansas City when he was just 15 years old, already playing multiple gigs with seasoned professionals.
Metheny’s previous Side-Eye projects were trio-based ensembles. With the current Side-Eye III+ project, he realized the music he was writing for Chris Fishman (piano/keyboards) and Joe Dyson (drums) needed to be bigger. Not unlike the Pat Metheny Group of years past, he augmented the trio format by bringing in needed musicians, with Jermaine Paul on bass and Leonard Patton on percussion and vocals—hence the “+” in Side-Eye III+.
The air of anticipation within the sold-out audience was palpable. To signal the concert’s beginning, the band—minus their leader—made their way to the stage through the audience, wearing and playing marching drums with harnesses, hinting that something special was about to unfold. It vividly reminded me of the only other time I had seen all of a band’s members march from the back of a stadium to the stage with similar harness drums–beating out an incredibly powerful African rhythm pattern—when Peter Gabriel and his musical compadres launched into “The Rhythm of the Heat,” the lead-off track from Gabriel’s self-titled fourth solo album. Both Gabriel’s and Metheny’s grand entrances were powerful and fun ways to connect with the audience. In last Friday night’s case, once Metheny’s band reached the stage, off we went into Methenyland.
Jaco Pastorius had a nickname for the mighty Metheny—he called him “Methuselah.” The meaning of that nickname was never more apparent than it was to over 2,500 fans. The drum entrance led into an opening number that Pat performed on his impressive fan-fret baritone guitar, which then transitioned into the first full-band tune—the triumphant opening track from his recently released album Side-Eye III+ titled “In On It,” a wonderfully propulsive opener that is melodically and harmonically pure Metheny at his best.
Next up was the title track from his debut album–recorded in Stuttgart, Germany, in a single day with Pastorius and Bob Moses–Bright Size Life, now being played impeccably by Metheny and beautifully shared with Fishman, Paul, Dyson, and Patton. The group continued with “Don’t Look Down,” the second track from the new album, which highlighted Fishman’s outstanding solo.
The trio format of Metheny, Fishman, and Dyson carried the next two tunes: “Better Days Ahead,” where Metheny took rhythmic liberties with the melodic phrasing—breathing new life into an already great piece—and “Timeline,” a Michael Brecker tune that once again featured Fishman, this time with an organ solo, while also showcasing Dyson’s dynamic range on drums.
Back to the full quintet: when I first heard “Make a New World” on the album, I was stunned—what a masterwork of Metheny’s compositional abilities. It translated beautifully as the next live tune, growing even more powerful in the moment, followed by “So Far So Good,” the last track on the new album. Then came a major highlight of the evening: all five musicians, in unison, began clapping the infamous 22/8 pattern, heralding the beginning of Metheny and Mays’ definitive masterpiece, “First Circle” (always interesting to spot those in the audience who are hip to the 22/8 clap pattern…and actually do it). Percussionist/vocalist Leonard Patton truly shone here, with vocals reminiscent of the great Pedro Aznar, while Chris Fishman channeled the late, ineffably great Lyle Mays in a transcendent piano solo.
The Jermaine Paul/Joe Dyson rhythm section was phenomenal in this masterpiece—as they were throughout the show. Upon the climactic ending, “First Circle” garnered the first of several standing ovations. The applause seemed to last forever. At that moment, I overheard audience members reminiscing about what they called the “golden years” of the Pat Metheny Group—mentioning rhythm sections like Rodby/Wertico and Egan/Gottlieb. There is clearly a faction of fans with strong opinions about different eras—but they were there, and they were loving it. I also heard comments like, “Best Metheny show I’ve seen since the PMG.”
When the concert reached “Phase Dance,” an audible gasp swept through the audience. Performed as a duo with Metheny and Fishman, it was stripped down, absolutely beautiful—and it worked. Metheny then joined Dyson for “Trigonometry,” from his work with Ornette Coleman. Metheny’s fretless guitar tone sounded like what might happen if a bundle of loose barbed wire were strummed aggressively—certainly an acquired taste. As I surveyed those around me, I saw a mix of wide-eyed fascination and visible perplexity.
There were also a couple of moments during the evening where Metheny and Fishman played lines simultaneously, and traded lines, with Fishman using a synth patch similar to Metheny’s signature Roland guitar synth sound. For some, this may have felt a tad redundant.
Metheny has always preferred to let the music do the talking, and true to form, his remarks to the audience were minimal. While he remains the leading force in jazz guitar worldwide, many of us remember him as a wonderful storyteller onstage. To listen to him speak is inspiring. He received an Honorary Doctor of Music from Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1996. It would be a welcome addition to hear more from him in future performances.
Major props to Metheny’s guitar tech, Andre Cholmondeley. I first met Andre through my association with Steve Howe, who spoke very highly of him. Seeing Andre working with Pat was an absolute pleasure. Considering the number of guitars, tunings, effects, string changes, and ongoing maintenance required, it takes an exceptional tech to keep everything running seamlessly—and Andre clearly delivers.
(photo: Steven Kikoen)
Another incredibly important person behind the scenes who has consistently been the common denominator in Pat’s professional life is the great bassist, producer, audio and video editor, and University artist-in-residence, Steve Rodby. Steve is the associate producer of Side-Eye III+, and if one reads the credits on the album, one will see that the very first acknowledgment in a long list of thank yous is to “Steve Rodby for everything, as always, too much to even begin to list.”
The two-and-a-half-hour show truly felt effortless, culminating in three encores. The first featured Metheny alone on a baritone nylon acoustic guitar, delivering a beautiful, slow rendition of “America the Beautiful,” flowing into additional pieces. The second encore brought the fan favorite “Are You Going With Me,” and the final encore closed the evening with a powerful and joyful rendition of “Song For Bilbao.”
Regarding Chris Fishman, Jermaine Paul, Joe Dyson, and Leonard Patton—it appears that Honorary Dr. Metheny has Side-Eyed greatness indeed.
Category: Featured
