The Blasters, NYC, BB King's Sunday, Nov 23rd

[SallyLightfoot]

I'm planning on checking them out on Sunday night in NYC. Last time I saw them was the mid 80's, so I'm pretty excited to see them after all these years. These guys play truly american rockabilly music that should be cherished.

[bigwavedave]

Cool...look forward to a review. Is Dave Alvin with them on this tour? I've seen him solo, but would really love to see him with the Blasters.

[SallyLightfoot]

I'm pretty sure that Dave is not touring with them, but the rest of the lineup is original members.

[tileboy]

I saw them on their reunion tour with Dave in 2002. Great show.It be great if they did that again. 3/4 Blasters is better than no Blasters.

[SallyLightfoot]

I just learned that The Blasters are touring in support of a new album "4-11-44", which gets great reviews on Amazon. Since I'm not (yet) familiar with this album, I'll do my best to report the track list.

I'm pretty psyched to hear this concert. There's a lot of great buzz around the new recording.

[SallyLightfoot]

The concert was very, very good. Phil's voice still sounds amazing-- I would jump at the chance to see him play a solo gig.

Here's the approximate track list from last night:

Dark Night
All Your Fault*
Precious Memories*
Please Please Please (James Brown cover)
(a Bo Diddley cover)
(a Phil solo, while guitarist Keith Wyatt replaced a broken string)
Love is My Business (?)
Red Rose
(an old-timey cowboy yodeling song)
I'm Shakin'
Trouble Bound
Boneyard*
I'll be glad when you're dead (? a blues # dedicated to George W Bush)
Goodbye Baby So Long
Border Radio
Long White Cadillac
Help You Dream
Daddy Rolling Stone*
Marie Marie
One Bad Stud

*from the new Blasters release "4-11-44"

In all it was a very good show, and I'm glad I went. They went on around 9:15 and finished by 11PM. The new Blasters release is very solid-- I purchased the MP3 album for the ride into NYC.

The only minor downside of the concert was that it was a cocktail-table venue, and many of the 250 in attendance were sitting around ordering drinks and chatting quietly. It was not the jumping affair it should have been, but the band (a quartet) sounded great and the track selection was good.

[bigwavedave]

Thanks for the review; happy to hear they still sound great.

The cocktail dinner thing reminded me of my first REM show in 1984. They played at a music hall with a bunch of dinner tables set up in front of the stage. Not a good move. Less than 5 seconds into the fist song, Michael Stipe invited the crowd to "get up and dance or do whatever you want", resulting in an instant stage rush with tables and dazed diners flying everywhere. I will never forget the sight of a waiter trying to balance a tray full of cocktails way above his head as he got sucked into the crowd and disappeared.