The Doobie Brothers Launch Summer 2025 Tour

The Doobie Brothers brought their Walk This Road Tour home on Monday night, kicking off a North American leg of the trek at the Pine Knob Music Theatre in suburban Detroit with help from a genuinely special guest for the duration of the summer — the late Jimmy Buffett‘s Coral Reefer Band in its first national tour since his death in 2023.

You can see photos and fan-shot video below

It’s an undeniably dream kind of amphitheater touring package, a pairing that some years (OK, maybe decades) ago would be fit for a stadium. But on Monday, with both sets broadcast live via Radio Margaritaville, it more than served its purpose as the bands demonstrated a high level of ensemble musicianship, allowing every member an opportunity in the spotlight as they worked through legacy repertoires that insured not much time would pass without a hit or four to please the 9,000 or so fans throughout the night.

The Doobies were two weeks removed from a successful European jaunt, and the only opening night issue during its 90-minute, 17-song set on Monday was an erratic sound mix that was sorted out after the first six songs, just in time for a charged performance of Tom Johnston’s soulful “Call Me.”

That was one of four songs from the Doobies’ well-received new album Walk This Road, and those found a similar welcome at Pine Knob as the group rolled through McDonald’s grooving “Learn to Let Go” and socially conscious title track — the latter accompanied by Civil Rights photographs on the video screen — and Patrick Simmons’ Southern Rock raver “Angels & Mercy.”

As for the rest, the presence of fresh material clearly some jet fuel into performances of the favorites, a set list that drew all but one of the songs from the diamond-certified Best of the Doobies compilation and singles from 1978’s Grammy Award-winning Minute By Minute.

The Doobies treated “Dependin’ on You” from the latter to a fierce extended rendition that passed the ball between McDonald on keyboards, Johnston, Simmons and multi-instrumentalist John McFee on guitars, and saxophonist Marc Russo.

The octet did the same for “Without You” (with high-pitched vocal harmonies nicely intact) and “Long Train Runnin’,” while Minute By Minute‘s “Here To Love You” was a welcome deep dig amidst the barrage of hits.

And rest assured there were few complaints as the Doobies’ take of Eddie Holland’s buoyant Motown favorite “Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While),” “Rockin’ Down the Highway,” “Minute By Minute,” “What a Fool Believes” and “China Grove” rolled by.

The encore was a greatest hits mini-set unto itself as well, starting with “Black Water” and, following an instrumental version of “Amazing Grace” by McDonald and Russo,” renditions of “Takin’ It to the Streets” and the always joyful “Listen to the Music.”

Throughout, the Doobies of now reminded the crowd of the Doobies’ of yore, filling the screen with vintage footage from the 70s and early 80s, occasionally synced to what was happening on the stage at the time. During “China Grove,” for instance, the Johnston on the screen was seen changing a broken guitar while still singing in tandem with the Johnston below him. The good news, however, was that the present Doobies compared well to its predecessors and still absolutely vital.

The Coral Reefer Band came with a different kind of task, however. “We have the privilege of continuing the party Mr. Jimmy Buffett started some decades ago,” emcee and longtime Buffett collaborator Mac McAnally told the crowd — which had more than a few Parrotheads sporting tropical print shirts, colorful headwear and, in one case, a full pirate’s outfit. Later McAnally explained that “nobody in the world’s gonna replace Jimmy Buffett. We’re just gonna honor him.”

With Buffett’s empty guitar stand sitting center stage, the 13 Coral Reefers did just that, running through a 70-minute set of 15 Buffett favorites played just as they should be by musicians who almost all had lengthy tenures alongside him.

Hit songwriter Scotty Emerick, another Buffett collaborator, was the lineup’s sole fresh member, sharing lead vocals with McAnally, Will Kimbrough, Nadirah Shakoor and, on Crosby, Stills & Nash’s “Southern Cross,” guitarist Peter Mayer.

Mick Utley, meanwhile, took his retired father Mike’s place on keyboards, while Robert Greenidge maintained his steelpan drum mastery during a number of the songs. Buffett was present at one point via video, conversing with McAnally during a concert, but the Coral Reefers kept any kind of maudlin tributes at bay.

The group did draw “Bubbles Up,” a Buffet-Kimbrough composition, from the posthumous Equal Strain on All Parts album. But the bulk of the show stayed in the Parrotheads’ preference lane, opening with “License to Chill” and proceeding through all the biggest hits, with all the appropriate crowd participation marks hit during “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” “Fins” and “Margaritaville.”

Buffett’s absence did lend a greater emotional heft to gentler fare such as “Come Monday,” “Son of a Son of a Sailor” and “A Pirate Looks at Forty,” but the tempo always swung back up — including Kimbrough singing the lights out of Van Morrison‘s “Brown Eyed Girl,” a Buffett staple.