John Mayall

[Superman]

Thanks for the report, Lisa. I had never seen him before, and was stunned. He's just a happy, good-natured, TALENTED, SKILLED, hard-working blues man. OMG can that guy play. Based on what I saw, Clapton was right.........Mr. Mayall engages in three activities. He sleeps, eats and plays blues music.

[john walker's workshop]

20 years ago i went to the king cat theatre in seattle to see peter green. in his day, probably better than clapton in my opinion. mayall was second billing, so he was on first. awesome show. peter green was pretty bad. depressing to see someone deteriorate like that. i left early, but glad to see old john was still his old self.

[hardflex]

He's gonna be at the Belly Up Bar in Solana Beach CA later this month. Small intimate venue, my Mom lives out there. Thats tempting to fly out just for that!

Great Blues is good for the soul!

[scottmandue]

Saw him at the Golden Bear... great show... glad to hear he is still going.

[Superman]

Originally Posted by lisa_spyder

Great band - great sound...only complaint was that the venue was just a little too 'refined' for blues...best I could do was dance in the seat lol! I wanted to be up dancing in a pub dodging spilled drinks etc...like the ol' days...

...sensational!

I saw him at the Triple Door. Very nice arrangement of seats and tables, allowing casual dining and a comfortable experience where all seats are excellent. A dress-up place. There was a lot of "chair dancing" that night. I completely agree with Lisa. I'd rather be on my feet at a dive bar where Mayall rocks the place until closing.

[lisa_spyder]

Originally Posted by Superman

I completely agree with Lisa. I'd rather be on my feet at a dive bar where Mayall rocks the place until closing.

Thank god it's not just me ... I yearn for more venues that allow the patrons to really enjoy the music and experience...almost all of our decent venues like that are gone here now ... replaced by a few beer barns that are too big and full of troublemakers (and the decent muso's won't play those venues anyway)...or the smaller pubs have gone over to the 'dark side' and filled their venues full of poker machines instead .

I so want the era of my 20s back...we had our 'usual round' every week of great little pubs where the atmosphere was sweet and the live music was sweeter...I was lucky enough to be on the tail end of all this...unless things change my kids sadly won't have the same fabulous experiences...

[Superman]

That is a sad picture. And yeah, now that you mention it, there aren't that many places you can go on a Saturday night for "pitchin' woo" and dancin' yer ass off. That WAS fun.

And you know what? I was a musician for a bit, and I can tell you there are few things you can do fully-clothed that are more fun than playing music to a small venue where everyone is dancing their asses off and applauding and whistling and smiling. There is this place in Tacoma.......I wonder if Mayall could be persuaded? I think he'd have more fun than the audience.

[lisa_spyder]

Honestly, if I could I would buy an old pub and bring it all back...but even our liquor licensing laws disadvantage these sorts of venues now. There's a big fracas at the moment in Melbourne about this - one of our last true live music pubs is facing closure as the licensing fees have been pumped up so much for these sorts of venues that the management just can't afford it...thousands of people joined a rally only a few weeks ago to save this pub.

It is sad Supe... for the muso's and for all of us...and as far as having this much fun with your clothes on...same goes for the audience...now we're all supposed to sit there and toe tap politely...where's the show of appreciation and enjoyment in that?

[herr_oberst]

"pitchin' woo" ?