traviswright

So Ashley and I went to see old Johnny Boy last night in Charlotte. I’ve spent the day so far trying to rate the concert experience. We had great seats, so nothing to complain about there.
On the way home from the concert, I thought, man that was great, but the more I think about it I feel like it wasn’t as great as I hoped it would be.

First of all, I didn’t think that the sound mix was that great. From where we sat the bass was very muddy. Of course the kick was dominating the mix. I don’t have a huge problem with that, but I seldom heard what the bass player was doing. And you know that Johnny Boy’s guitar sounded great. At times it was a little ear-piercing, but that doesn’t bother me. His tone is something amazing though. There aren’t many pickers out there with a better tone than what he’s working with. I don’t think it the sound was a problem because of where we were sitting, I walked around some and it seemed the same way across the board.

The set list was very intersting. He did 4 covers. 2 which I didn’t know (one Paul Simon, one slow blues jam that I didn’t know). 1 which I kind of knew (Crossroads). And 1 that I knew (Free Fallin’), but I really don’t like his version of it at all. The set consisted of 16 songs total (4 of which were covers). The ones that were missing were Slow Dancing in a Burning Room, I Don’t Need No Doctor, The Heart of Life, and Stop This Train. He started the show with Bigger Than My Body which was surprising. Gravity, Belief, I Don’t Trust Myself With Loving You, and Vultures, which are probably my favorites off of the newest album, all sounded great. One of my older favorite songs from John Mayer is Wheel. This was probably my favorite song of the night, and one that I didn’t expect to hear. But it really was beautifully done. Fortunately he played 2 songs from the John Mayer Trio – Good Love Is On The Way and Who Did You Think I Was. The 2 songs couldn’t have been farther apart from each other. Good Love Is On The Way was awesome with the full band. Who Did You Think I Was completley sucked. He did the song with just his electric by himself as the first song of the encore. It just didn’t work at all in my opinion. The encore as a whole was a major let down – Who Did You Think I Was, Paul Simon cover, and Say.

Am I glad I went? heck yeah.
Would I go see him again? only if it was in columbia.

I’m glad that I had the chance to see him, but I don’t think it lived up to my expectations. Watching the new DVD on a huge flat screen with a great sound system would have been just as good. Maybe he was just having a hard night from his recent break up with Jennifer Anniston – who knows.

Here’s my grade for the concert:
Sound: C
Lights/Production: B+
Set List: B-
Overall: B