Blowin' in the Wind

This Valentine's Day, I had the pleasure of floor seats to see B.B. King & Buddy Guy, arguably the 2 biggest names in the more recent history of the blues. I was even more excited because it was at Midland Theatre, which was just recently reopened, and used to be a killer venue.

We got there about 4 minutes into Guy's set, after a desperate move to beat the Valentine's Day dinner crowds (We ate at Stack's). Buddy Guy was just here in December but I missed him then and I didn't even know he was opening for King when I bought the tickets, but was hella stoked when I found that out. And he did not disappoint! At the age of 72, Buddy is still rockin' it out hard. I'd say my favorite was a gorgeous rendition of "Feels Like Rain", but I'd be crazy to not mention his 10-minute voyage through the crowd. He stepped offstage, walked up one aisle, popped behind the bar for a quick drink, and then walked up the other side back to the stage, greeting people and playing guitar the entire time. Freaking awesome. I have a Blair Witch-esque video of this, which I will post later. He talked a bit in between songs, and was hilarious. He also did a 3 minute long medley of other peoples' blues, in which he made fun of "Clapton blues". As much as I love Clapton, it was hard not to enjoy Guy's skeptical version of white boy blues.

After an hour opening set, and 20 minutes or so of stage change, BB King's band came out and played. Musically one of the tightest groups I'd seen, and I now have a newfound love for Melvin Jackson, the sax player. But you all know I have a soft spot for those sax men! So anyway, after what I would guess to be 10-15 minutes of them playing, BB came out to stage & explained that he plays seated because of diabetes & age, which I think we all knew already. He talked some, played some, talked some more, played some, talked more, and then closed with his anthem "The Thrill Is Gone". It's impossible for me to give him a bad review for a number of reasons...the main one being he's BB King. And when he played and sang, it was apparent that he's still "got it". The problem was there was not enough playing nor singing. There was much storytelling and such, which I'm totally okay with for the most part. He is a great storyteller, and has seen a lot and is funny. But when there's more talking than singing, at $100 or so a seat, the masses get restless. Overall, the show kicked ass, and I'm glad I got to see these blues legends before they stop touring. Plus I paid more than that to see Tim McGraw & Faith Hill a couple of years back, and comparison-wise, I would rather have listened to BB King talk for a solid 3 hours than see that show again. :-p