As guest host, I was basically at the venue (or thereabouts) from about 5:30 to 12:45-ish, so it was a loooooong night and I'm exhausted, but man, what a show.
Load-in was a lot of fun, followed by dinner at the venue. I try to give the band some space at these events, but I have to admit it was super-cool to be crammed into a booth with Mike, my friend Dave (my "plus one") and Donato (assistant guest host). We consumed yummy salads (how rock and roll!) and talked about a bunch of stuff, mostly music, of course. Mike and I also gushed about our daughters - mine just graduated from Emerson, his just finished her sophomore year. I realize none of this is related to the actual "show," but indulge me here. This was a really nice part of the night.
I realize that not everyone loved the opening acts, but I thought they were both great. I'm biased - I've seen Bent Knee before, and I've become friends with Ben, their guitarist (a seriously terrific guy and complete Zappa/Keneally/Vai freak). They were supremely tight with an interesting dynamic (guitar/bass/drums/electric violin/female vocalist who also played keyboards). Prog-rock Bjork? That's one way of describing them, but I'm sure there's a better way. School for Robots were a loose, fun, guitar-heavy three-piece band. Kinda Replacements-ish, maybe? Anyway...I loved them.
I introduced Mike and the band, but don't ask me about that because it's basically a blur because I was kind of terrified/starstruck. They dove into "Backwards Deb" and we were off.
This is the first time I've seen a three-piece Keneally show, and the stripped-down dynamic really works well. Gregg's glockenspiel was deftly employed. Mike, Gregg and Doug are a terrific musical weapon. Mike is very much into the simultaneous guitar/keyboard thing this time around.
Nice to see the SG get a lot of playing time.
Nice to hear a lot of Wing Beat Fantastic songs. "Your House" sounded particularly gorgeous. After that song, my friend Dave told me that he thought Mike sounded a lot like Joe Jackson. I agreed with him (I like to describe "TRANQUILLADO" as "Joe Jackson on an LSD trip"), but I read somewhere that Mike doesn't see the comparison. Odd.
I really liked Gregg's songs, especially "Hysteresis." For that song, Mike employed a particularly chunky, distorted electric piano patch that reminded me of fusion-era Miles. Fun!
"Blameless" segueing into "Haugseth" was genius.
I loved "Surf's Up," and so did my friend Dave, who's a major Beach Boys nut.
Let's talk about Spectacularly Drunk Guy (SDG) for a minute. Ron mentioned him. After the show, I was talking to Bent Knee drummer Gavin (another very cool individual). Apparently, SDG is a drummer and major prog rock geek (and not mentally challenged, as Ron suggested - just drunk). He used to work with Gavin at Guitar Center before he left (or was fired?) after a couple of weeks for being drunk at work or something like that. Shocker. Anyway, I told Gavin, jokingly, "So it's your fault he's here!" to which Gavin replied, "He didn't even know my band was playing tonight! He came here to see Mike!" But yeah, he was really the one and only annoying factor about the whole night. I felt really bad for Mike, who handled it like a pro.
The Middle East Upstairs gives new meaning to the term "dive." But it worked well for this show. Mike told me after the show that he really liked the vibe.
Load-out was a lot of fun. We had a lot of laughs packing up the van, saying our goodbyes, taking pictures (including a few pictures taken with Mike's doppleganger - long story). It was a beautiful night. Lots of great music. Mike doesn't make it out to our coast very often, but whenever he does, you can bet I'll be there.
Chris