evenkeel
February 6th, 2009, 12:25 PM
Last night we caught Buddy Guy and B.B. King in concert in Clearwater, Florida. Love to be telling you it was great but.....
Buddy was terrific. Great showman, fabulous guitar player and singer. Terrific, tight backup band. Loved the way he paid tribute to some old blues players, John Hurt, Albert King, Sumlin. Terrific nod to Clapton with a cover of Strange Brew. Even a quick Hendrix riff. He played the title tune of his new'ish CD "Skin Deep". The electric sitar was a neat surprise. Here is Buddy doing the tune on Letterman. Same back up band bye the bye. Finished with "Damn Right I've got the Blues". :AOK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdCAFNZAyko
The not so good part was B.B. Train wreck of a performance in my opinion. Way, Way, Way to much talking between songs. All the talking was done over a riff by the band. You kept thinking they are going to actually settle into a song any minute, but no the chatter would just go on and on.
I thought B.B. and Buddy would be backed by the same band. Nope, the roadies clear out Buddy's stuff. Set up B.B.'s band which includes a four piece horn section. Before B.B. comes out the band does two instrumental tunes, with every member but the drummer doing a solo turn. We are now 20minutes into the set and no B.B.. Then when he does come out, he goes into a long patter before finally we get a tune. I did not have a watch on this, but my guess is it took him an hour to play four songs. Now when he finally got around to playing he was good. He's lost a bit of his chops, but hey he's 83. A point he made dozens of times. And he's still got the pipes. Key to the Highway was good, nothing else really stands out. Cover of You are my sunshine, "for the ladies", was pitiful. For only the seond time in my life I left a concert early.
Sorry for the rant, but Buddy and BB are going to tour together for a while, so if they come to your town, buyer beware.
Side rant, this was the first concert I've been to where the use of cell phones, cameras, etc. was a real pain in the bu**. The guy in front of me spent a good portion of the show text messaging and there was a constant use of cameras. Rude IMHO.
Rant over...
Buddy was terrific. Great showman, fabulous guitar player and singer. Terrific, tight backup band. Loved the way he paid tribute to some old blues players, John Hurt, Albert King, Sumlin. Terrific nod to Clapton with a cover of Strange Brew. Even a quick Hendrix riff. He played the title tune of his new'ish CD "Skin Deep". The electric sitar was a neat surprise. Here is Buddy doing the tune on Letterman. Same back up band bye the bye. Finished with "Damn Right I've got the Blues". :AOK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdCAFNZAyko
The not so good part was B.B. Train wreck of a performance in my opinion. Way, Way, Way to much talking between songs. All the talking was done over a riff by the band. You kept thinking they are going to actually settle into a song any minute, but no the chatter would just go on and on.
I thought B.B. and Buddy would be backed by the same band. Nope, the roadies clear out Buddy's stuff. Set up B.B.'s band which includes a four piece horn section. Before B.B. comes out the band does two instrumental tunes, with every member but the drummer doing a solo turn. We are now 20minutes into the set and no B.B.. Then when he does come out, he goes into a long patter before finally we get a tune. I did not have a watch on this, but my guess is it took him an hour to play four songs. Now when he finally got around to playing he was good. He's lost a bit of his chops, but hey he's 83. A point he made dozens of times. And he's still got the pipes. Key to the Highway was good, nothing else really stands out. Cover of You are my sunshine, "for the ladies", was pitiful. For only the seond time in my life I left a concert early.
Sorry for the rant, but Buddy and BB are going to tour together for a while, so if they come to your town, buyer beware.
Side rant, this was the first concert I've been to where the use of cell phones, cameras, etc. was a real pain in the bu**. The guy in front of me spent a good portion of the show text messaging and there was a constant use of cameras. Rude IMHO.
Rant over...