The Venue:
From the attendee standpoint RiverEdge Park provides a good listening experience. I don't know the capacity of the park but it seemed to hold a good amount of people. As I mentioned in the previous post about the concert, the park doesn't have seating you either have to bring your own chair or blanket. The place is really divided into two sections. A large area near the stage is separated from another large grassy area farther back. We sat in the grass back area. As you can see from the picture the stage is pretty far away. From a see the performance perspective there is a lot to be desired. The sound on the other hand was excellent. They have a lot of good quality speakers placed around the venue. So even if you end up way back you can enjoy the show.
I am intrigued how the performers perceived the venue. How much audience reaction could the get? A lot of people pressed near the stage. The performers seemed to do a lot o interacting with them so maybe the interaction level was fine. But anything we screamed or yelled just go lost into all that open air.
Sonny Landreth the best guitarist you've never heard of
I had never heard of Sonny Landreth until I decided to go to this concert. He provided the opening act and played for about thirty minutes. That man can rock. I didn't know any of the songs but he played with a lot of energy and got the crowd ready for the night. After the concert I looked up some of his music on spotify. I hate to admit but his recorded stuff did not have the pure energy of the live performance. If you get a chance to see Sonny Landreth live I highly recommend it.An 87 year old diabetic blues player flirts with young women
The main reason I wanted to go to this concert was to see B.B. King. I had heard that his latest performances hadn't been very good. I mean the man is 87. Having been a fan of his almost all my life I knew I wanted to see him before he is gone. His band of about eight guys opened up with a several minute long instrumental that got the place jumping. With much fanfare they announced the arrival of the man himself. About five minutes later B.B. King had managed to make it onto the stage and into his seat. Over the next hour I think he might have performed four songs. Except for the last song I don't even remember what ones he performed. He spent most of the time rambling to the front row. For the final song he brought on Peter Frampton to help. Thus began an at least twenty minute long rendition of The Thrill is Gone. BB played the guitar a bit and belted out the chorus about four times. He spent most of the twenty minutes hitting on the women in the front. He joked to the boyfriends that he had a knife. At the end of the twenty minutes he waddled off.
Now reading this it probably sounds like a horrible performance. I loved it. BB was very entertaining and self effacing throughout. He had me laughing many times. I think he realizes he can't really play or sing the way he used to so he has found another way to entertain the audience.
Peter Frampton sings the 3 of his songs you actually know
Peter Frampton closed out the night with a long performance. He started a little flat to me. The first three or four songs I had never heard before and couldn't really get into them. He then did Show Me the Way and the place went nuts. The show picked up from then. As part of it being called Guitar Circus, Peter includes two other guitar artists in his performance. The first guest guitarist was Larry Carlton. I had never heard of Larry Carlton either. The two of them jammed out for a couple of songs. Peter then brought out his son to provide some vocals. I assume Peter can't hit some of those notes anymore. They performed the other two Frampton songs you've heard, Baby I love your way and Do you feel like we do. It was time for the second guest guitarist and it was Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick. They rocked a version of Surrender. Another high point was a great instrumental version of Black Hole Sun with the vocals being provided by Frampton's guitar.
Overall it was a great night. The night ended as it should have, we got lost on the way home.
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