Topic: Santa Fe show at the Lensic (3-20-10)
Just got back home from the Santa Fe show. Joe, as usual was great, as was the rest of the band. I've only seen him once before and that was several years ago here in Amarillo. Unfortunately we weren't seated on the main floor, but on the front row of the mezzanine level center stage (only spot I could get 4 seats in a row for the family). If Heartaches were Nickels, Sloe Gin---awesome into, and the acoustic stuff was the highlight for me. Oh, and he did a cover of The Who's Young Man Blues that was just killer!!! He had some help on several songs by bringing local Albuquerque blues guy Ryan McGarvey onstage to play. Ryan played at the Corazon club the night before, but unfortunately we didn't think it a place to take the kids. If you haven't heard Ryan, check him out. Anyway, I don't know if it was our seating position, or the Lensic theatre, but the vocals were a complete wash unless Joe was playing by himself, as well as the keyboards being way low in the mix, bass and drums were fine. When I saw him in Amarillo it was at the Globe Theatre, which was built for the local orchestra, and the acoustics are quite good--you could hear everyone in the band crisp and clean. The only guitars I remember from the Amarillo gig were the goldtop LP and the sunburst LP. Everything else was new for me, so that was a great change as well, with the ES-355 being a very nice addition. Joe also seemed to have improved his stage presence from when I saw him last, moving around a lot more and being more confident with his vocals.
My kids were into it for the first few songs, then lost some interest until Sloe Gin, where they could really hear Joe in his element. They're fairly young and easily distracted, but by the end they were both bouncing their knees which was good to see. My daughter thought that might be a cool way to make a living 
All in all a great show and I can't wait to see him again at Crossroads in June.
