Tab

Josh and I got to go see Tab Benoit (Ben-wah) last night. He is a favorite artist of ours; we saw him once while we were dating, then we went there on Valentine's Day right before Josh left for Germany, and we danced our first dance at our wedding to his song "Georgia." His songs are Cajun Blues, from Louisiana, and he's really fun to listen to. We haven't seen him in a couple of years because they started putting him at Mojo's, not The Blue Note, and he always came on Wednesday nights. Since Mojo's is so small, you had to get there ridiculously early to get a table, and since we have church on Wednesday nights, it just wasn't worth it. So we were really excited to go last night, since it was a Thursday night and he was at The Blue Note. Neither of us had been in there since they redid the balcony, no more tables and chairs up there, they put in theater seating. And there's no smoking in the balcony, so it was less thick up there. It was a pretty good show. The first set was mostly songs we didn't know, but Tab is fun blues to listen to whether you know the songs or not; he can do amazing things on his guitar. Then the second set he came out just him, without the rest of the band, and just sat on a stool and played by himself. He played several of our favorites then, and sounded awesome. By that time Josh and I had gone to stand on the floor for awhile, so we were really close to the stage. The coolest thing about Tab's concerts are that he attracts a very wide range of fans! Most of the people there were 30's or 40's. But there were lots of couples our age, there was one kid who looked about 3rd grade standing right next to the stage, and sitting in the row in front of us in the balcony was the cutest old couple. They must have been 80 or 90, and had trouble walking down the steps to get to their seats, but once they were seated the old man played drums on his knees and bobbed his head along with the music and had a great time. So cute! Anyway, it's always interesting to people watch there.

The one part I wasn't too happy with was in the middle of the second set when Tab talked for 5 or 10 minutes about the government abandoning Louisiana, and how wrong the war in Iraq was, etc, etc. That wasn't much fun, but then the guy lives there, so I imagine he sees a side to it that we don't. He was very funny, though; he told everyone to go take a vacation and spend their money in New Orleans because that way they knew the money was staying there... Anyway, overall it was a great show, and Josh and I even managed to stay until the end (way, way past our bedtime). Didn't hurt me too bad, I slept until 10, but Josh was a little slow getting up for work this morning! Oh well, the price you pay for good entertainment! :)