Welcome to BluesRow

We took in the Fab T-birds concert at the American Music Theater here in Lancaster, PA last month. Just some personal background — I went in with a very open mind, because I really had heard very little of their stuff. I missed the Tom Cruise movie that featured Tuff Enuff, and I just hadn’t been exposed to their music. I knew that Jimmie Vaughan used to play in the band, and I had heard that Kim Wilson was an amazing harp player. In fact, a harp-playing buddy of mine considers him the best current blues harp guy.

So my unvarnished, no pre-conception opinion of the band is… They were OK. That’s as a band. The individual parts of the band were all excellent. The two guitarists, Kirk Fletcher and Nick Curran, had contrasting styles and were definitely good players in their own rights. The keyboards guy, Gene Taylor, was a versatile and tasty player. The bass player, Ronnie James Weber, was workmanlike, and the drummer, Jimi Bott, was awesome. Kim Wilson, as advertised, was off the hook. But, to me, the whole was definitely less than the sum of the parts.

I understand that this current version of the band has not been together that long, and that may explain it. The highlight was an extended (10 minute?) harp solo by Kim Wilson. You know it’s “extended” when the other members of the band walk off stage during the solo! Haven’t seen that in a long time. And he was truly amazing — a great mixture of chops and monster tone. Absolutely jaw-dropping.

But the band never really seemed to cook. Maybe it was the venue — the AMT is a 2000 seat auditorium which features a lot of oldies acts, and the audience seemed a bit on the older side. It’s not really conducive to audience participation and rocking out. On the other hand, I saw BB King and Buddy Guy there, and they both brought the audience to their feet.

Another thing might have been the guitar mix. Fletcher plays a Strat in a very unvarnished fashion: lots of bassy quack, if you know what I mean. And Curran played a Squier 51 with a very trebly sound (almost painful to my ears). Both guys were obviously good, but the mix wasn’t there. Again, perhaps the sound guy had an off night.

The crowd did seem to appreciate them, and of course, Tuff Enough was a rousing success. But I have to admit I’m not dying to see another Fab T-Birds concert anytime soon. I would like to hear them in a while to see how the band is meshing, and I hope that may be the explanation for what seemed like a pretty average concert.