Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Buffett warms up the night
Well, I had a fun day yesterday. I spent the afternoon partying with Parrotheads, and spent the evening at Jimmy Buffett's Shoreline concert. The one review I've read about it is relatively positive, and talks as much about the new sound system as the show.
And the sound quality was indeed excellent. I've started wearing earplugs at live concerts to protect my hearing, and everything that came through them was crystal clear. This is a far cry from the acoustics at the HP Pavilion, aka the "Shark Tank," where the echoes made it impossible for me to hear Buffett's between-song bits.
The show was innovative in some ways. Buffett has pared down the size of his band this year (and raised ticket prices...but that's another whole story), opened with an acoustic solo version of "Boat Drinks," and delivered one new song ("Here We Are," a Parrothead anthem) entirely by video. He did a couple of songs that surprised me, and I'm sure others - a fairly solid version of "California Dreaming," and a funkified version of "Dixie Chicken," which was opened by a wonderful solo by guest keyboardist Bill Payne of Little Feat.
There was a noticeable number of empty ampitheater seats, due in no small part I am sure to the exceedingly high ($126.50 plus service fees) price for seats. I got lucky - I had a lawn ticket (the lawn, I hear, was packed), but managed to acquire a seat ticket from a fellow Parrothead in a deal I could *not* refuse.
I'll write a separate post about the pre-concert partying.
And the sound quality was indeed excellent. I've started wearing earplugs at live concerts to protect my hearing, and everything that came through them was crystal clear. This is a far cry from the acoustics at the HP Pavilion, aka the "Shark Tank," where the echoes made it impossible for me to hear Buffett's between-song bits.
The show was innovative in some ways. Buffett has pared down the size of his band this year (and raised ticket prices...but that's another whole story), opened with an acoustic solo version of "Boat Drinks," and delivered one new song ("Here We Are," a Parrothead anthem) entirely by video. He did a couple of songs that surprised me, and I'm sure others - a fairly solid version of "California Dreaming," and a funkified version of "Dixie Chicken," which was opened by a wonderful solo by guest keyboardist Bill Payne of Little Feat.
There was a noticeable number of empty ampitheater seats, due in no small part I am sure to the exceedingly high ($126.50 plus service fees) price for seats. I got lucky - I had a lawn ticket (the lawn, I hear, was packed), but managed to acquire a seat ticket from a fellow Parrothead in a deal I could *not* refuse.
I'll write a separate post about the pre-concert partying.
# posted by Loren Davidson @ 7:37 AM 
