The crowd eagerly waited inside Lincoln Park’s packed Park West venue, 322 W. Armitage Ave., before the start of Keller Williams’ latest show on Oct. 17. The stage was meant to give the audience the feeling that they were standing within the interior of a guitar shop. Each of the instruments were given price tags and signs reading “You Break It, You Buy It” and “Shoplifters Will Die Slowly” donned the walls. An oriental rug was sprawled in front of six panels, which lined the back of the stage displaying 15 guitars, including his signature guitars—Martin HD-28 and Tacoma Thunderhawk—in addition to a mandolin, a banjo and a standup bass.  Also included in his array of instruments were his percussion gadgets: a thumb drum, an electronic xylophone, Cuban box drum, Djembe drums and a Kaoss Pad, a touchpad used to create sound distortion.

Often referred to as a “one-man jam band,” the laid-back singer strolled onto the Park West stage in his signature style of barefeet and khakis, smiled at the crowd and began to play the always upbeat instrumental track, “Thin Mint.” The song picked up momentum when audience members whistled along with Williams as he bounced around and strummed with transcendent wizardry. He then proceeded to the second song, “Apparition,” followed by a bluegrass cover of Amy Winehouse’s hit “Rehab,” the first cover of the evening.

The enthusiastic crowd bopped along as he transitioned from the bluegrass cover to beatboxing, which he backed up with bass-infused beats echoing from his Kaoss pad. Williams went on to play seven other covers that evening including “Sex and Candy” by Marcy Playground, “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones, “Stayin’ Alive” by The Bee Gees and four Grateful Dead covers, “Attics of My Life,” “New Minglewood Blues,” played on his sitar, “Candyman,” played on his keyboard and an extremely funky crowd favorite, “Shakedown Street.”

The first set ended with Williams singing the words to the crowd, “I don’t care if you stay the whole time, ’cuz this isn’t just for you, it’s that time of the week for me too,” as he picked his 10-string and ended his first set. During the break in sets, the majority of the crowd sat down on the floor as an acoustic set of celebrated jam legends like Phish played softly in the background.

The second set opened with Williams covering “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones, in which he moved from acoustic strumming into super fast hammer-ons that led into his “Stayin’ Alive” cover. During his rendition of The Bee Gees’ hit, Williams created magical beats as Park West’s ground floor transformed into a dance floor and the crowd grooved as if they were in a ’70s disco club.

Williams concluded the show with an encore of renowned song, “Celebrate Your Youth,” a tune about enjoying yourself each day of your life and living in harmony with the earth. Playing and overlapping almost every instrument spread throughout the stage, Williams proved that he is capable of creating a cohesive sound while in the midst of craziness.