Bottleneck Blues Bar
Ameristar Casino
St. Charles (St. Louis), MO
Thursday, November 15, 2007
General Admission
$45
This was a very pleasant concert and I am so glad we were able to attend. This group is made up of Tommy Shaw from Styx and Jack Blades from Night Ranger. They previously played together in a band called Damn Yankees. Roy and I saw them on VH1 earlier this year, promoting an album called Influence - acoustic covers of some of their favorite songs with lots of emphasis on vocal harmonies. The reason we paid attention was their cover of Yes' Your Move. I didn't buy the album, but I thought they would be nice to see live.
I checked the tour dates, and they were not coming to St. Louis. Months later, they scheduled a date here. Unfortunately, I put off buying tickets and it sold out. I never let that happen! Fortunately, Roy was persistent and called the casino the day of the show - a handful of extra tickets had been made available and he was able to buy two.
The show could not have come at a better day. I had an awful meeting at work. My boss' boss dumped a bunch of extra work on a project with no relief on the due date. He actually made jokes about it, all the overtime I'd have to do and hoping I wasn't traveling for Thanksgiving so I could work over the holiday. This was a virtual meeting and I was talking to everyone over the phone - they couldn't see how red I was getting. My own boss had left the meeting halfway through and I felt like I didn't have any support. I needed a release that night!
Roy picked me up at work, and we drove over to the Ameristar casino. It's not too far from work, and I had been there for a work lunch once before. The venue was really nice, much better than the similar Voodoo Lounge at Harrah's nearby. Once inside the bar, it was non-smoking, non-eating. The bar was in back, which kept the noise away from the front of the stage. Comfortable seats, nicely decorated. There was a second raised section in back and on the sides, with slightly cheaper ticket prices, but we were up front. Roy brought a Yes t-shirt for me to change into. The line grew much longer while we ate dinner, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to see behind the rows of taller people. But Roy noticed some shorter women sitting in the second row, so we sat behind them. I could see fine.
We bumped into a friend of Roy's, whom he had not seen in years. David is another Yes fan, and told us Shaw/Blades were not doing Your Move every night. That song is really what got me interested in this duo in the first place, and it seemed to be their lead song from the VH1 special. I hoped they did it.
A local DJ introduced the band. It was Tommy Shaw, Jack Blades, and a third musician all on acoustic guitars and vocals. They opened with Summer Breeze from Seals and Crofts. Shaw played the lead guitar line. The second song was from a previous album they did together. During these songs, they made comments and jokes between the vocal lines. I'm glad it didn't continue for the whole show, because it would have gotten old.
They gave a long introduction to the third song. Blades heard the song on the car radio and called Shaw immediately to suggest playing it. Shaw wasn't sure, but quickly worked up a guitar intro for it. It was Yes' Your Move. Jon Anderson has such a unique voice and range, it's hard for other men to sing Yes songs. Tommy Shaw did a good job with the lead vocals. The harmonies were really nice, and they included the "Give peace a chance" refrain during the diddit diddit diddit diddit diddit diddit diddit didda part. In fact, there was a dramatic pause after the final "Give peace a chance" and I thought it was the end of the song. I stood up and applauded for a moment before they continued. Embarrassing! But it was a new arrangement, and I was so enthusiastic and happy to hear it.
When the song was over for real, Roy and I both gave standing ovations. I remember the crowd giving it a lot of applause, but they gave a lot of songs a lot of applause as the night went on. Tommy saw us and said thanks directly to Roy and me. Roy swears he noticed my Yes t-shirt. Tommy pointed to us and made another comment (about us?) but I couldn't make out what he said.
Later on, they played I Am a Rock from Simon and Garfunkel. The guys joked about the songwriters and original performers of the songs potentially getting angry over the covers, so they only covered songs from artists physically smaller then they are, like Paul Simon and Jon Anderson. I'm just glad to hear Jon's name as if he's a household name that we should all be familiar with. It's like that in my world.
I don't remember the song order, but the following songs were played: Styx's Too Much Time on My Hands, Foolin' Yourself and Blue Collar Man, Night Ranger's Sister Christian and a song I didn't recognize, Don't Tell Me You Love Me, the Damn Yankees songs High Enough and Coming of Age. I thought some of the heavier songs didn't come off as well; they took the focus away from the pretty harmonies.
The cover songs were the real treat. In addition to Yes and Simon and Garfunkel, they played:
California Dreamin' - The Mamas and the Papas
Dirty Work - Steely Dan
Time of the Season - The Zombies (my second favorite of the night)
For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield segueing into
Stop in the Name of Love - Supremes (done as a joke)
Carry On - CSNY (a portion of the song)
Love the One You're With - Stephen Stills
and some others
The whole show had such a laid back, personal feel. I think the atmosphere was partly because we were sitting so close, because the two lead performers were obviously friends and bantered back and forth a bit, but also because they were performing so many covers. It put the emphasis on the songs we all love, rather than their own material. The stripped down arrangements made it feel like these were some guys playing in my living room. They both came across as very down-to-earth, likable guys, especially when joking about Ted Nugent or how they looked and dressed as "rock stars". The venue not being a dirty rock club helped too. It was a good fit of performance type and performance space.
Both Shaw and Blades had a strip of guitar picks taped onto their mic stands and would throw picks out to the audience occasionally. Towards the end of High Enough, I saw one coming towards me. I saw him throw it, but didn't realize it would reach me until I thought I saw it in my hair. I felt around and couldn't find it there or near my seat. Roy hadn't noticed yet. No one else sitting near us was going for it, so it didn't fall behind me. Roy told me to look under my chair. The guy next to him told me to use my cell phone for some light. I did, and I found the broken pick under my chair. This was turning into some night!
Shaw brought out an electric guitar for the final song of the main set. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place it...until the vocals started. It was Lucky Man from Emerson Lake & Palmer! This is a song by a keyboard-dominated band with a big keyboard solo at the end. It was being played by three guitars. At the end of the song, Shaw played a guitar part mimicing the familiar Emerson solo into part of his own solo. It worked out well, even with the juxtaposition of timbres.
The show started on time at 7:30pm and they played for about an hour and a half. This was one of the earliest ending shows I've ever been to, but that's good on a work night! We wondered if the band would come out to sign autographs. There were only 300 people here and it had been such an intimate low-key show, it almost felt like we were all friends already. The merchandise guy told Roy they don't come out, so we headed home. I didn't have anything to get signed anyway. I was in a much better mood than when I left work that day.
