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House of Blues, Anaheim Man there were a lot of people lined up to see this show. I figured he'd be more of an unpopular unknown Jonny Lang personally, but I sure missed the mark. In any event, I lined up along with the rest of the 40+ crowd for what seemed like an interminable about of time before we were let in. Bitch bitch bitch. I'm getting old lately I think. Anyway, there was one opening act, some guy whose name never seemed to be mentioned, and who only played an accoustic and sang whiney, sensitive guy songs. This guys was not really what everyone was there to see, but they did at least give him a modicum of respect. Next time Kenny needs to get some blues warmup bands to open for him instead of Mr. Sensitive. Oh my god, he almost killed Kenny! hee hee. So after being put to sleep, it was Kenny's turn to try and wake me up. I knew that Kenny didn't sing up until his latest release, but I didn't think he'd be as quiet as he was on stage. For what appeared to be a fairly young group of musicians, they were freakin' tight, loud and just plain damn good. Leaving the bulk of the vocals and stage presence to his singer, Kenny took a back stage seat and almost just played with the band. He did sing a few songs off the new album, and made a few trips to the front of the stage when soloing, but he seemed a lot more remote than he needed to. Odd because the crowd just at him up alive, almost to the point where it looked as if the band wasn't entirely used to that kind of a rousing reception at their gigs. In any event, the tore it up and put on one hell of a damn fine performance. Two guitarists (including Kenny), a drummer, bassist, keyboard player and the singer all rounded out the band. It was hard to tell at times who's band it was between the singer and Kenny but when Mr. Shepherd took off with his strat the place came alive. Too cool. I'd glady go see this guy again anytime. The only thing that would really make the show neater, short of a flock of goth girls in short latex minis and fishnets, would be to have Kenny come up and speak and sing a little more than he does instead of leaving the bulk of that task to his singer. But maybe that's the way he likes it. One other thought that kind of crossed my mind was what it would be like to be Kenny, up there with the crowd eating out of your hand, and not really having any younger groupies following you around. Sigh. The life of a rock star ain't always what it's cracked up to be I guess. Hee hee. As usual with the older folks, the crowd had few manners and was just generally a drunken pain in the ass. Sadly I didn't get to go down in the pit this time to get the experience, but leaning on the bar worked almost as well. In any event, if you like hard rock or the blues, by all means don't miss this guy and his talented band. He's not totally original, he's not Stevie Ray, but he is worth every buck you're gonna spend to go see him. You can find Kenny's homepage here. |
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