I've been to see them three times before. I should have found out about concerts when I was in undergrad - I have never had the pleasure of seeing Barry Carl* or Elliott Kerman perform. However, I did see them when Kevin Wright was still in the group, and I have to say that the guy they added when Kevin left is spectacular as well**.
The thing about this group*** is that while their recorded music is a ton of fun and wonderful to listen to, they bring an amazing energy to the stage. The first time I saw them was in Saratoga in, I think, 2005, for a holiday concert^. My friends and I had so much fun that we immediately bought tickets to a show a couple days later in Napa - which, lucky for us, was a non-holiday concert (though they did do holiday music too). I then missed the next couple of concerts in the area for various reasons (mostly having to do with school... should'a gone anyway), and went to see them again last year. Last year was pretty spiffy because Scott Leonard (the longest-serving member of the group) remembered me from before - when I got my first CD^^ signed after the second concert, I'd told them we had been twice in one week^^^. Last year, when I got Bang!, he recognized me as someone from a couple years ago who had been twice in a row. Wow, what a memory. He didn't recognize me this time, that I'm aware of, though. Oh well, I still had the thrill of going to see them, and the thrill of being recognized last year.
One of these days, I'll have to arrange a trip to Japan to coincide with one of their tours there...
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| Previous CDs I've had signed didn't get personalized. Now I'll have to get me a copy of Smilin' for the next show I go to... |
* You should take a listen to the accent samples - they are a hoot!
** and, as one woman commented to me after the show, very easy on the eyes ;-)
*** I enjoyed when I was a kid on the PBS geography quiz show Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, but rediscovered them in university - and discovered they made a whole 'nother kind of music than what I remembered from the TV show - which, while fun and entertaining (and educational), wasn't *about* the music...
^ I don't know why, but they seem to have a lot of holiday CDs. I wish they'd do more non-holiday recordings. Steven has a great cover of The Beatles' Got to Get You Into My Life that I would LOVE to have a recording of... hopefully eventually. They did record California Sad-Eyed Girl for their last album, which I had been hoping for since hearing it as an encore at the first (or maybe second?) show I went to...
^^ I think it was Don't Tell Me You Do, and possibly another one
^^^ I was then incapable of listening to their recorded music for a couple of months... the live experience is so much more fulfilling that the recordings were a flat, unimpressive shadow of what they are capable of.
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