Guest Book

Before we hear about more Mule.....dTb the past Friday at the Kraushaar Theater in Towson, MD - pretty good! Not the best show ever, but even a "so-so" night of the dTb is light years ahead of most other outings.... Let's see....the night opened up with the Hackensaw Boys from Charlottesville, VA - great blue grass band, good originals and some standards and a real nice rapport with the audience...which is a seque into...the Kraushaar.... This theater is really called an "Auditorium"and is a part of the Goucher College campus. It's a really nice place to see a show - great acoustics, freindly staff of students and for my point of view, almost perfect for the dTb experience...the theater atmosphere allows for rapt attention - there were moments where Derek was able to bring it down to a real subtle level (you could have heard the proverbial pin drop) but at the same time if you want to get out of your seat and mve to the side and dance, it's a-okay...so best of both worlds, right? Even Yonrico said toward the end "We've never been here before, but we want to make sure we come here again..." Only downside was the crowd size - the Kraushaar can hold about 900 people, but I don't think it was even half full...I wonder why? Enough Kraushaar review...and on to the dTb.... Opened up with the Sahib Teri/Makni Madni offering...and while one of my favorites, I think it's better later on when everyone is more "warmed up"...this offering felt less inspired than others we've all heard... (BTW...I don't remember the whole setlist so no worry about having to follow me through the entire night!) Volunteered Slavery was next and nice...I'm at the point where Derek's straight playing seems more interesting than his slide.....what else...heard Can't Fight Love (I think that's the title, I don't remember ever hearing it live before....), great Mike vocals on Like Anyone Else, tasty drum and flute for Angola, saw a new (at least to me) 6 string red bass played by Todd, a great For My Brother, crowd pleasing Joyful Noise...and a Soul Stew into Everything is Everything encore. What else...great to see Yan - we all sat in the second row (which is actually better than the first at the Kraushaar) right in the Derek Zone...lot's of tapers there, including Justin Carlson, so this one will definately be out there for us... and last but not least....just one of my thoughts....about a year ago Derek said in an interview that a goal or whatever was to get the dTb into these mid-size theater settings...looks like my next few dTb shows will be in those (Sunoco Theater, Old Opera House) and I think it is the perfect setting for where it appears the band is going musically....I just hope they have the draw to fill these places on a regular basis...