When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. ~Hunter S. Thompson
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| Designed by: |
| Brian Bethke Solo at the Snout |
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| Written by John Abbott | |||
| Tuesday, 17 February 2009 23:25 | |||
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It was a fun night at the Snout last night. Osseo guitar player, Brian Bethke played solo to a nearly full house of Brian Bethke fans. It's fun when you are in a crowd of fans. They know the music, they are there to hear it, not just use it for background noise. Not a lot of dancing. I think the beat isn't quite right for the dancers. So, the view from the pool table was nearly perfect. I have been to a lot of concerts over the years, and, my friends have been to even more. And, in all those years, of all those shows I have been to, I have never seen anything other than the standard live show. It is only through my friends that I have heard about anything else, as in "Dude, you should have had tickets to Clapton last night, man. The warm up band was sick, so Clapton just came out and played for THREE HOURS" Was I at that show? No. I went to see Clapton at the next year's tour where it was the singularly worst concert sound I have ever been to. Another time, ZZ Top had to play a rescheduled date, they announced they felt bad and so they played a whole extra set. ...was I there? No, I had tickets the next night when it seemed their guilt was not so great. So, I felt like I got my payback on last night's show. Because, Brian Bethke played five hours straight with only one 15 minute break. We pretty much ran his whole play-list and then some. It was a fantastic night of music. So what did we hear? Brian doesn't really play too many covers. Musical high points for the covers, the Bob Dylan song, _Hey Hey, My My_, Pink Floyd's _Wish you Were Here_, even a wisconsin bar room staple, _Sweet Home Alabama_. All of these performed with a bit of an artist's twist. It was a day of seeing singer/songwriters, having seen Anna Johnson early that afternoon. It is tough to make it in this business. To hit this point like Brian has, to have people start to shout out your own song names must make the work, all worthwhile. Of course, it was a bit more of a shouting crowd at the Snout! With the long show we were able to get a couple of repeats late in the night. A second, stellar performances of _Damned Old Song_ to close. And, a deep cut, from Brian's CD that I had never heard him play live before. ...<cough ...cough> when I remember the name I will put it here. By the end of the evening, my fellow pool-table-music-critic, Jane, had committed Brian's name to the whos-who. And, as the evening drew to a close, I was satisfied. I had collected my "...and he played all night" story. Brian Bethke will be playing at the Hallie Bar this Friday night. Worth the trip!
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| Last Updated on Monday, 09 November 2009 00:11 |
