Black Like Sunday tour (second leg) with openers Saccharine & Felicia Collins and the Life
Well, let me start off by saying that B.B. King's Blues Club is an excellent place to see a band. The venue is not only clean and decorated with class, but the sound system is clear and loud, the lighting is better than average, and they have Red Hook ESB on tap! With that said, I must also point out the B.B. King's Blues club is not a good place to eat dinner before the show. I ordered their $14.00 pulled pork sandwich after being told that the heaping portion of pork was slow-cooked in a savory BBQ sauce and served on a bakery-fresh bun. In actuality, it was a modest pile shredded pork, topped with a spoonful of lukewarm BBQ sauce that could have easily come out of a jar, served on a soggy bun that came straight out of a cellophane bag. Needless to say, seek your vittles elsewhere!
There were only two bands opening for King's X - Saccharine and Felicia Collins and the Life - and they all performed on time. I decided not to take too many photos of the openers so I would have lots of extra memory for the Main attraction. Saccharine was decent, but not terribly moving in opinion. I think they suffer from the "gotta make it" disease that keeps them from going agaist the flow to make really innovative music. Still, they were a far cry better than most of the other bands that opened for the boys at Don Hill's last year. They were offstage in 45 minutes.
(More info on Saccharine here... http://www.saccharineonline.com/)
Felicia Collins (the band guitarist for The Late Show with David Letterman) was another story completely. She was humbled by being given the opportunity to open for King's X. She was vibrant and energetic. And she and her entire band ROCKED! They were funky, poppy, experimental, soulful, jammy, and laden with groove throughout their entire performance. It also seemed that every solo break was improvised and given time and space to grow as the entire audience swayed, clapped, and sang along. Every member of the band was a bona-fide expert at what they did, and they had a synergy that made their performance a breath of fresh air laced with a shot of adrenaline for the headlining band to come - much like Podunk and Moke were on past tours, in my opinion. They played for an hour, and then it was time for King's X... If you get the chance to see Felicia Collins and the Life, I suggest taking it!
(More info on Felicia Collins and the Life here... http://www.feliciacollins.com/)
A very trim-looking King's X took the stage to the expected barrage of hoots, hollers, and screams. I have never seen the band in a more upbeat, happy, and healthy-looking place in at least five years. They smiled, they played with passion and finesse, they sang with verve and conviction. They loved the audience, and the audience loved them back. This was perhaps the best King's X show I have seen to date. It was such a good-feeling show and their setlist was all over their catalogue, providing great joy to the longtime fans looking for a broad spectrum of tunes, and showing the as-of-yet unexplored "classic" side of the King's X sound to the many new (and decidedly young) fans who turned out for the show. There was an "acoustic" set in the middle that was received very well by all (only Ty was playing his acoustic). They jammed away for about two hours, and the time flew by as everyone in attendance had an excellent time. To top it all off, not one of the guys retreated to the tour bus after the gig. Instead, they set up shop in the lobby, chatted with whomever wanted to talk, signed anything anyone cared to put in from of them, and took pictures with anyone who so desired... including me, who finally scored his first photo with the full band.
My personal favorites from this evening's snaps are as follows: 000_ep_kingsx (my first full-band photo), 002_feliciacollins07, 002_feliciacollins11, doug03 (dreads a flyin'), doug04 (goin' to my head), doug18, doug102, doug202 (artsy), jerry12, kingsx05 (doug and ty hitting the 7+9 chord in We Were Born to be Loved), kingsx201 (artsy), ty07, ty102 (acoustic slide), ty105, ty201 (Ty in full jam mode). Hope you find some favorites too!
NOTE: Pictures were resized to 800 pixels max width/height for the best possible quality. For best viewing, please set your screen resolution to 1024 x 768 pixels.
