The gig was in the Moore Theatre in Seattle, right downtown, not far from Pike's Place Market. We got there before the doors opened, and, amazingly found parking on the same block as the theatre for $10.
Our seats were in the balcony, but they were still really good. The way the theatre is set up, even the farthest seat in the balcony still has a good view of the faces of the performers. The boys sat by themselves and I sat further up because I had bought one ticket at a later time than the other two.
The opening act came on 1/2 hour before the ticket said the show was to start, and 1/2 hour after the doors were opened. I was glad we got there early!
Zack Wiesinger was the opener, and he was funny! Here is a pic of him with Steve.
He played his guitar very well, quite technically able, and his lyrics were fun. Last year he participated as a regional finalist in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN, and was awarded The Albert King Award for most promising blues guitarist. Not all of the songs he played were blues, though.
One song he sang was about how his hair was perfect.
"My hair is perfect/ It has seven sides/ My hair is perfect/ I take it for a ride/Roll up the window, please/ It can't feel no breeze..." lol
He reminded me at times of a vaudville act. He kept pretending to get caught up in his cable and he would get loose with exaggerated movements. One time he pretended that while he was playing a song the cable came out of the guitar and he pretended that he didn't know why the guitar went silent. Another time he went to sit on something in front of the stage and he did a little jump to land on his bottom and when his bottom hit, he struck a quick chord on the guitar.
I, sadly, must admit that I enjoyed Zack better than Steve.
Now, don't get me wrong, Steve was amazing. The things that man can do on a guitar and the sounds he can get out of his guitar are just so out there, but....
Well, it is as Leon has said in the past here on BT: Steve plays with his guitar as opposed to plays his guitar. I think it is incredible what he can do, but after a few songs it really geds old for me. What he says with his guitar doesn't speak to me, personally.
My boys, however, they loved what he did.
Steve had two violinists with him, both of them keyboardists as well. Steve mentioned that he got the female violinist from Tull and Ian wants to kick his butt for it! lol
Everyone in the band got to solo; the violinists did it in a kind of duel, and I really enjoyed that part.
The drummer, Jeremy Colson was a kick in the pants to watch, too. He had his drums set up in a way I don't often see. He had his snare and a couple of toms in front of him, with his hat and a china off to the left and then his kick to the right a lil bit and most of his toms and all of his other cymbals to the right. The way he had the instruments on the right set up, it was like a straight line, not curved. He had only the one kick, but he had a double pedal that he used a few times. He played without a shirt, and had quite the tattoo on his chest! What I liked watching the most, though, was how he used his left stick when he was playing closed. He would lift the stick right in front of his face, then it would go around behind his head and then down onto the snare. Slow or fast, hard or soft, this was how he played closed. It made for an interesting show.
