On Tuesday night at the Jubilee Auditorium here in Edmonton, my buddy Buzzard and I attended the Buddy Guy and Jonny Lang double bill. This was my first time seeing Jonny Lang in concert and my third time seeing Buddy Guy live. This double bill was promising to be a great night of some blues music.
The evening started with Fargo,North Dakota phenom Jonny Lang opening. I had heard and read lots about this blues guitarist but have yet to pick anything up of his. And after his show Tuesday night, I won't be rushing out to get buy any, anytime soon. I found his set to be extremely boring, sure he can sing and play, but his style of the blues does nothing for me. It all felt very contemporary, I am more a fan of gritty rocking blues. My buddy Buzzard who is a fan and has some of his albums, also wasn't all that impressed, so I know it wasn't just me. His hour and fifteen minute set felt like it was never going to end. After all the hype about Jonny Lang, I was expecting more, a let down for me.
Headliner of the night and rightfully so was the living blues legend 76 year old Buddy Guy. Buddy and his band come out rocking opening with the title cut from his 1991 album Damn Right,I've Got The Blues. It was one of the few songs that Buddy Guy actually played from start to finish. Buddy would get in to a song and then stop and tell a story or break off in to another song, or do a bit of a cover, songs like 'Hoochie Coochie Man' by Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker's 'Boom Boom' and a couple of Cream songs 'Strange Brew' and 'Sunshine Of Your Love' were also covered, again not in full though. One of the songs he did do in full was the song 'Someone Else Is Steppin' In that had a full audience participation during this song. Another song he did was the song '74 Years Young' from his last album (2010) Living Proof it was during this song that Buddy Guy ventured in to the crowd playing away and hamming it up through out the crowd, at one point I lost sight of him only to have him show up right behind us in the first balcony and four rows up still playing away. Sure didn't expect to have Buddy Guy that close to me considering we were in balcony seating, so that was super cool.
Here are a few pictures of him behind us. He caught me by surprise, so the first couple of pics aren't great.
To close out the night Buddy Guy broke in to the Jimi Hendrix classic 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)'. Oh ya, Buddy and his other guitarist also brought out the acoustics for a couple of songs, something I have never seen him do before, super cool. Again I really enjoyed seeing Buddy Guy in concert, he such an entertainer and an amazing guitar player as well. His set was also 75 minutes long, but I could have stayed for another couple of hours listening and watching Buddy Guy perform. You would never guess him to be 76 years old that's for sure. All and all a great show. Good times!!!
Because lately I always seem to have some kind of rant about the show. I do for this one too. This one has to deal with the posters they were selling at the merchandise booth. It is the poster at the top of this post. These posters were for sale for 15 dollars and were advertised as a limited edition poster of 300 only and all individualy numbered. Well I call bullshit on this one, have a look at the poster, do you see a number anywhere on it? Nope, nothing on the back either. False advertising on that one. I wish I had noticed this at the show. Damn!!!
T-shirt front.
Back of t-shirt.
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