Poolside at The Desert Diamond Casino – Image by kenne
Over the years Joy and I have seen BB King on several occasions. Since it has been a number of years since last seeing him, when we learned he would be playing at the Desert Diamond Casino, we decided to spend a day and night away from our continued acclimation to our new home in Tucson enjoying some good music, gaming and . . .
It was an enjoyable time, except King’s was disappointing. The 84 year-old King looked and sounded good, but there was way too much talking and little music. As usual, King’s Blues Band played the first 10-15 minutes before introducing King who played maybe six songs in between a lot of talking before ending the evening. If we had not experienced better shows in the past, we would probably been less disappointed. Maybe we should be more forgiving of this 84 year-old blues legend, but there is still something to be said to “. . . you’re only as good as your last performance.”
kenne
BB King — Image by kenne
Ken,
Great artist’s (Like BB King) get new energy form their audience. I’m sure “The Thrill is not quite gone yet” for Mr King.
Mabey they should just have “Short Shows” for “Gold Acts” where their able to do a few songs and talk about thier lives. Like your old Montgomery Blues Group. I’d go !
. . . putting the evening into context, based on the song selection and the dialogue with the audience, one would have to conclude the BB wants to be part of his funeral parade so he has started it now. Even when he sang “The Thrill is Gone,” he sounded like it’s gone forever. It was much more soulful with a mournful edge.
Plus he was trying to hard to be funny, but had a few good spontaneous moments reacting to comments from the audience. I would like to be giving a better review, but it is what it is.
Jeri & Ron saw BB & Buddy Guy last night at the San Manuel Casino. “We loved Buddy Guy, but B.B. King was a big disappointment. Buddy performed for a good hour and he is an amazing entertainer. B.B. King’s performance was very hard to sit through and watch. He let his band members do most of the performing for him and participated very little. We only wish we could have seen him in younger years. At least, we got to see him perform once,before he is no longer with us.”