last nite

so much to blog on my little space in the world.
Of course Dave Lewis bowed out at just about the last minute. I went solo.
Got great free parking....It was a sultry evening. Mainly made up of post college students and current students. It was not even close to 1/2 capacity. It was a Guster crowd.
Donavan Frankenreiter ( I am not making that name up!) was playing when I arrived and the sun was slowly sinking and the humidity was finally taking a respite. I did not pay that much attention to Donavan and was not close to the stage....I kinda wandered around taking everything in getting free Clif bars and checking out the venue...which is pretty sweet. Festival Pier, Penn's Landing...North of the Ben Franklin Bridge. Next to the scenic Delaware River directly across from the Camden Prision. It's a sweet spot.

So since my stage is set. I will summarize everything real quick for you readers.
Ray LaMontagne came out and played a FULL set. He played from the heart, just like he writes. He had a female bass palyer who was opposite of his personality...she had expression and drama. Now that may sound odd since I said Ray played from the heart; you don't need drama and expression to leave it all on the floor. A lead guitar/keyboardist and a drummer with a set of drums that s/b in a museum...all wood and sounding AWESOME. There were only a handful of people that knew who Ray was let alone that had come to see him play. It was a Guster crowd folks and they talked incessantly during Ray's gig...It was bothersome, but it did not seem to impact Ray and the band...He sang and sang as if this was his last performance. But lo and behold the audience was ignorant to the bearded man with an acoustic guitar that was not ROCKING them. Even I could not sway this crowd to appreciate Ray...it was afterall a Guster crowd.
So Ray, not a talker was ready to close...the band left the stage and Ray announced he would be playing @ least two "quiet" songs. He then proceeded to quietly perform "All the Wild Horses"...the crowd continued to not pay attention to ray, but to each other. When Ray was done the song...he turned from the mic, lifted his guitar high over his head, mumbled something and let the guitar crash to the floor as he angerly left the stage. He was unappreciated and he let them know it. The crowd stopped talking for a moment, used the scenario that just took place to converse about for a few and then moved on to continue talking about whatever.
It was sad, it was anger, it was Ray's passion. Thank you Ray, thank you very much. It made my nite when you did that, seriously it did.

Guster is rock band and the crowd was happy when they took the stage. They rocked...Most were happy, some were not. I hope Ray went and wrote a song.