Topic: Final show of the year...incredible!
Last night's show in Fort Myers was a great way for the band to end their 2010 tour. Having never played in this city before it might have been reasonable to expect that there would be a respectable showing of hard core blues fans in the audience, but maybe more than a few empty seats as well. Well, from where I was sitting it looked like a sell-out crowd...that's 1800 hundred or so people turning out, and apparently LOVING what they got!
My wife and I have only seen the band only once before, last November in Clearwater Florida and we were really impressed at that show. We've been fans of the music since then, and have enjoyed the CD's and of course the RAH DVD. What we saw last night, however, was just amazing. Maybe playing 215 shows in a year creates a special energy in a band, and maybe the more a song gets played the more it evolves toward perfect. I don't know if any of that makes sense. but this show felt like a true peak experience. The band was as tight as any band could possibly be...they were individually brilliant, and at the same time it seemed like they together became ONE. I don't know how else to describe that.
Songs that we had heard before were played with...I don't know, maybe I might say a new understanding or something, and they became new versions of themselves. For example, "If Heartaches Were Nickles", always a favorite of mine, was played in a heartbreakingly gentle new way that really tore me up. It was perfect.
A highlight of the show was when Ricky Medlock joined the band on stage for a couple of songs. He and Joe shared the leads in "Further On Up The Road", and they went into "Blues Deluxe" trading licks that were just spectacular.
Another spot of brilliance was "Sloe Gin"...played and sung with the emotion intended by the lyrics just pouring out of the speakers. The show wrapped up with "Bird on a Wire" followed by "Just Got Paid". The entire house was on it's feet (as they were often throughout the performance) for this, and again I say...Wow!
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