Guest Book

Hey now! :wave: We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves last night at the Raleigh show. I was with Nicole, her sister April, her other sister Rachael, and our friend Daniel. This was Rachael's first Allmans show, and I was very pleased to look over and see her getting her boogie on many times throughout the evening. When I asked if she would go and see the band again, she said, "Absolutely!" Since I'm training for a marathon, I went into the festivities intending to remain completely sober. But then a mysterious visitor up on the lawn offered up some of North Carolina's Finest, and I couldn't say no. And then, when I was getting Nicole a beer, I noticed that they had Yuengling on tap. I know that is my ol' buddy Corny's favorite, and I know that he always hoists one in my honor at the shows he attends, so, well...I just HAD to have a couple of cold Yuengs. Gosh, what a weakling I am! On to the show. We missed most of Oteil's set, but what I heard was pretty funky. Always nice to hear his bass so high in the mix. Derek's set was superb--easily the best opening dTb set of the three shows I've seen this summer. Derek had a couple of those moments where I had shivers running up and down my spine. My goodness. As for the ABB set, well, it just seemed like they never really flexed their muscles and swung for the fences. There were some great moments, of course. Like Ron said, "Revival" was a monster. "Smokestack Lightning" was a first for me, and it totally cooked. Otherwise, I thought it was a pretty lackluster performance. I was disappointed. There, I said it. And like Chris, I don't understand why the band would leave 20 minutes on the table. They started promptly at 8:20 and ended promptly at 10:40. "One Way Out" is a fun little crowd pleaser, but does it have to be the encore so often? Three shows for me this summer, and three "One Way Out" encores. The luck of the draw, I guess. Poor Butch looked lost without Jaimoe. He just sort of stared off into space, completely disconnected with the rest of the band. The highlights of the evening for me were seeing some cats that I don't see very often. Bluefox Carol, faithfully manning the Hittin' The Note booth, and looking lovely as ever. EasyMichael and Brofan, always a pleasure to see you two. And a REALLY pleasant surprise to get to spend a little time with Charlesinator, who I hadn't seen since Oak Mountain in '02. What can I say? They can't all be grand slams, and we still had a blast. Hopefully Atlanta will get the goods tonight. 😀