Santosh's Blog

I thank my stars for the day I discovered Derek Trucks. Man, I just love that guy. He has brought so much joy to my life. I am so glad that he was not having an off night the first time I saw him play years ago at the Tulalip Casino. It was a mind-blowing performance and he has consistently delivered one amazing performance followed by another. The last time he was in the Seattle area, he played at the Marymoor Park and I felt that was one of the best live shows that I will ever see. It was outdoors, in a park, around the sunset time and right after Johnny Winter had passed and the band sounded like ear candy. Just the sweetest sound ever. With such a big entourage, one might feel like there is too much going on but not with the band is TTB, they just sound magical. The McCaw show was similar. I mean, in some ways it may have even been better. The highlights were “Soul Sacrifice”, “How Blue Can You Get?” and “With a Little Help From My Friends”. The show was amazing! One silly fact, I have seen Derek Trucks play over 20 times but this was the first time I saw him play at the same stage twice. ha ha. How often does something like that happen?

Pics are here.

Derek Trucks is one of my favourite musicians. If I can, I would go see him play everywhere. Thanks to the Tedeschi Trucks Band fan page on facebook, I learnt about this show in LA to celebrate the life of BB King. I am, of course, a huge BB King fan too. I managed to score two awesome seats to the show and thanks to Deepthi, we were off to see the celebration. The line up was star-studded and included:

Derek Trucks
James “Boogaloo” Bolden
Jimmie Vaughan
Jimmy Vivino
Joe Bonamassa
Joe Louis Walker
Keb’ Mo’
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Quinn Sullivan
Slash
Susan Tedeschi
ZZ Ward.

It’s very hard to be not moved when you have such names on the bill. And as expected, the show was mind-blowing. The acoustics inside the building were awesome. The night started with “Thrill is gone” that was started by Tedeschi and Trucks. With a vintage Trucks solo. There were insanely amazing performances by Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Joe Bonamassa. Some amazing clips from the movie “The Life of Riley” made the evening a combination of music and story telling. The show was perfect but for the fact that Derek Trucks did not play a solo towards when it was his turn to play. Susan sang “How blue can you get” and played the solo on that song and they had to make way for Slash. Come on Grammy Museum, how can you not have an extended Derek Trucks solo as part of this show? I cannot complain much as the rest of the night was near perfect. I mean, really. It was just amazing! Glad to have witnessed this memorable show.

I originally got tickets to this show wanting to see Peter Buck solo at an intimate venue and of course to see Young Fresh Fellows. Last time “The Baseball Project” played in Seattle, Kurt Bloch got on the stage and had a blast with them. So I was quite excited about this night.

When I got there, I found that Peter Buck had bailed out and the Trip Wires will be filling in for him. The Trip Wires put up a fantastic show. They were tight and having a lot of fun. Following them were Seattle veterans “Girl Trouble”. Kinda embarrassing, but it was my first time seeing Girl Trouble. They have a unique style and were really good.

Early in the YFF set, Scott McCaughey promised the crowd that this was going to be a great show. And boy, did they live upto the expectations. Guitar playing is so natural for these guys – both Kurt and Scott. To say they are very tight is an understatement. It was a really good show. I am certainly going to go see them the next time I have a chance.

Trip Wires:

Girl Trouble:

Young Fresh Fellows:

I have been wanting to see Nicki Bluhm for a long time now. Finally I did. And she was awesome. She sings super well and her band is awesome as well. Great show, I will have to see her again.

KDTU? Well they were so awesome that I forgot to even snap pictures. I managed to get one almost around the encore. These guys were in fine form that night.

I love Destroyer! And I love their new album “Poison Season”. For the last few years, maybe 5 years, that I have followed the band, Destroyer has never put a bad show. This show was simply amazing! The band had a full sound and Dan was in full form. One of the best shows, just awesomeness! I highly recommend checking them out. And while you are at it, check out their albums “Kaputt”, “Poison Season” and “5 Spanish Songs”.