I'm not sure how many tickets they give away but would guess there were no more than a 1000 people in attendance. They provide a free buffet and this year it was catered by The Salt Lick! The Salt Lick is one of the top bbq joints around. We had brisket, ribs, sausage, chicken and all the fixings!
The lineup was Tift Merritt, a surprise guest, the BoDeans and then Alejandro Escovedo to close it out.
Tift was great. I have her music and am a big fan but I hadn't seen her live before. She's a very enthusiastic, hard working performer. I don't know why but I expected her to come out, strum and sing her songs. Couldn't have been more wrong. She's quite animated, bouncing around the stage, blowing on a harmonica, playing the guitar and piano. I would definitely recommend seeing her live. She was backed by a 3 piece band.
Next up was the surprise guest. We were floored when they introduced Todd Snider. He has a brand new record out called Peace Queer. It's very good. Patty Griffin sings on several songs with him. They do a killer version of the old Creedence classic, "Fortunate Son." So Todd is one of those guys who must have words & rhymes popping in and out of his head constantly. Many of his songs, while bringing home a point, can be hilarious along the way. Todd brought out a surprise guest also. He had the local, great guitar player Rich Brotherton come out & wail away on a couple of songs. It was great!
After Todd came the BoDeans. While they were getting the BoDeans set up, we see Kenny Aronoff, the great rock drummer to the stars, come up on stage and start adjusting the drum set. I almost died. He really is one of the all time great drummers. Needless to say, he drove the BoDeans and they put on a rocking, good show. Not sure what happened to their regular drummer but to have Kenny "fill in," wow!
Next was Alejandro and he blew the roof off. What can you say? The guy has had quite the year and this was their last show of the year. It was loud! I think this is my 4th time seeing him this year and I never get bored. His lead guitarist, David Pulkingham, is so, so good. I think his drummer, Hector Munoz, is at the top of the deck along with Kenny. Then you add the strings, Susan Voelz on violin and Brian Standefer on cello and it makes for quite a sound.
A couple of cool things happened at the end of the show. For the encore they played the Stones' "Beast of Burden" and Alejandro had Jody Denberg, the heart and soul of KGSR, come up and sing it with him. That was neat. He also sang straight into my camera a few times as I was up and videoing. Check it out on youtube.
I forgot to mention our seats. It is a first come, first serve affair but we were a grand prize winner and therefore had 4 reserved, 2nd row, center seats. We were maybe 5 feet away from the performers. What a night!
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