Over the weekend, I want and saw Willie Nelson. Before the concert, there was big intrigue in if he was even going to show up, because he has a habit of cancelling shows lately. Apparantly his IRS bill is caught up, so he can relax a little.
It started out with apparantly a local band who I've never heard of. They played crappy cover tunes of crappy songs. The good songs that they did, they slowed them down for the old crowd. Their name's was Phil N the Blanks. If you like a Waylon Jennings voiced guy ruining great country songs...check them out.
Then next band was from Chicago. I know, when you think Chicago, you think country music. Some girl fronted it. They had good energy, and every original song, they mentioned that you could get it at iTunes. I appreciated the warning. They were better than Phil N the Blanks, but not something I would go look for, not even on myspace.
The true highlight, they were finishing up their set with Freebird. They finished their set, then they were told they had to play longer because Willie wasn't there yet. Like they said...how do you follow up Freebird? You limp thru songs you don't play much obviously.
Willie took the stage around 830, and we started to work our way up front. We got about 10 deep on the right side of the stage, not a bad spot.
He sounded good. Nothing spectacular. It sounded alot to me like he would if he was sitting on his porch jamming with some friends. No big production. Acoustic guitars, minimal lighting. He started out slow, warmed up to the crowd, and hardly said a word.
It was nice to see a living legend. If I had the chance to again, I would probably pass. I saw the Black Crowes a few weeks before, and he was definitely better than them, but I felt he was just going thru the motions.
I would give it 6 puffs out of 10
