FREE Sonny Landreth show TODAY! (free reggae show too!)

Both shows on Sunday were great!  My son's friends all couldn't make it at the last minute, and so HE wanted to stay home too, grrr... I gave him hell for trying to stand me up, because that would've meant I'd either have to go alone or skip it, neither of which I wanted to do... not to mention the fact that I KNEW he'd enjoy both shows, being a guitar player himself and a fan of both reggae and blues.  So I MADE him go, lol... and he spent the day thanking me for it too!

I knew George Wesley wasn't going to have his band with him for this gig, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  Turns out he makes a great 1-man reggae band too... he plays guitar and keyboard, uses looping, and can sound like any instrument with his midi hookup... very well done.  We were sitting at the table directly in front of the "stage" so we had a good view... some of his guitar work was pretty impressive, while the keyboard work was fairly basic yet effective.  I found it interesting that when switching from guitar to keyboards, he'd usually hold his pick with his forefinger and play keys with just 4 fingers on that hand, lol.  The Batdorf Restaurant & Lounge is a nice little place... he played in an area that was set up like a tiki bar, with huge garage doors raised to make it an open and outdoorsy.  They serve a good cheeseburger, and their fries are done in peanut oil, yum.  George played a half hour past his allotted time, and then spent a long time talking to us after the show and showing my son all his pedals and gear.  I also got him to take his knee-length dreads (28 years worth!) out of his hat to show my son, lol.  We also found out he knows Joe Bonamassa from way back when he was a little kid hanging out in his dad's music shop!  I made sure to mention the release of the new live CD.  He was jealous of our free Sonny Landreth show and would've loved to join us, but he had to get back home (to the Wilkes-Barre area, the opposite direction) because his girlfriend's daughter was in labor.

Between George playing late and then chatting with him after the show, we didn't make it to Long's Park early enough to get a good spot where we could watch Sonny Landreth's guitar work up close as planned.  He drew in a pretty large crowd, and we got there right about when he was starting, so we were back a ways, but we could still see and hear everything fine, and we did move forward late in the show when some people started leaving.  He was really good, and he got especially crazy on the guitar towards the end of the show.  People are right when they say you have to see him live to appreciate him, however he still does not do it for me like JB does!  He played from about 7:40 til slightly after 9:00, with no break, except a brief one before the encore... not too shabby for a free show.  And it was a very nice park, not to mention the beautiful weather that day.

Overall, a great day out for my son and I! 

--Vik

PS:  As for how I can disappear for a whole 6 weeks... well I've gone a full 2 months a couple times too!  This is just such a busy place... you really do have to check in daily to keep up, and if I'm not able to (like when "real life" gets in the way, or I'm in a funk and not feeling too social), then I REALLY have to have a nice chunk of time set aside to catch up, and from there it just keeps snowballing!  And I don't even read NEARLY every thread or post here either!  But Joe is one of my favorite artists, and you people are all so great, so I'll always be back, you can count on that.  I don't know if anyone here ever thinks of me when I'm gone (ha!), but if anyone thinks there's something I really NEED to know about, like a local show of some sort, you can always email me.  Some of you even have my cell number, although I typically only turn on my cell when I leave the house.  I'll try to stick around more though.