The Mavericks Capitalize On Enthusiastic Concord Audience

The Mavericks came to Concord, NH on Saturday May 10th.  They broke up back in 2003, but reunited last year with an excellent CD entitled "In Time." They lost none of their greatness as a band  during their ten years apart.

My night started with a couple of pre-show brews and a bit of food at the Draft Sports Bar across the street from the Capitol Center where the concert was taking place. I was joined by my dear friend Hamburger Heather and we started off with the chicken "minions." These were little chicken tenders that were fun to eat. It was an appetizer but you got roughly 100 of these little chicken chunks. My friend Hamburger Heather got a hamburger for dinner.  Did not see that coming. I went with my health-conscious grilled hot dog. My only complaint was they do not serve sauerkraut. I have lost countless hours of sleep worrying about the future of sauerkraut in our great nation. Hopefully only New Hampshire is neglecting these strings full of deliciousness.

Next it was off to the Capitol Center For The Arts to see the show. A cool, relatively new feature to the Cap
Center is you can get a glass of wine or a beer in the lobby and pour it in a nice sturdy plastic cup and bring it right to your seat. Not that it is necessary to do that at a concert, but it is a neat option.

The crowd was a bit on the older side, but what they lacked in life expectancy they more than made up with enthusiasm! I was surprised to see so many people head to the stage to dance as soon as the music started. Besides the five core members of the band, they featured a horn section, an accordion player and an upright bass player.  Singer Raul Malo is still the focal point of the band. He has an amazing voice and can sing all sorts of musical styles. The band played quite a few songs from their 1994 breakout cd "What A Crying Shame." They won all sorts of awards that year, way too many for me to type. The Mavericks came out for a couple of encores and their last four songs, were quite possibly their best four songs! I could have listened to them all night.  They will be playing at the Indian Ranch in Webster, MA on Saturday August 9th if you want to check them out this Summer. The Indian Ranch is a cool place to go. It is like a classy trailer park next to a beautiful lake that somehow gets good musical acts to perform there.

Junior Brown Was Just In Town

Junior Brown, the inventor of the pretty famous "Guit-Steel" guitar, recently performed at the Bull Run in Shirley, MA. This guitar has a double-neck, one of which is an electric guitar and the other is a lap steel guitar.  Junior would be considered a Country performer, but he also adds some Blues and Jazz, and Surf music into his shows. He also showed he can rock as he went through about a dozen classic Rock guitar riffs from the likes of Jimmy Page and Dave Davies. Junior also has a unique singing voice like Ernest Tubb, deep and barrelly. His two most famous songs are likely "My Wife Thinks You're Dead" and "Highway Patrol." With his combination of guitar virtuosity, his voice, and his interesting songwriting, Junior is an excellent person to see in concert.  I saw him for the first time around 1997 and he is still great today. He has a new song entitled "Hang Up And Drive" which fits nicely in the Junior Brown catalog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PWSmMuBNK0

The venue for this show was the Bull Run in Shirley, MA as I mentioned earlier.  This place is super cool. It has been around since 1740 and there is a rumor that Paul Revere swung by there on his famous horse ride. I know for a fact that Martin Van Buren, Andy Van Slyke, Abigail Henry, and Soupy Sales stayed there when it was an inn. It also has a covered bridge in the parking lot overlooking the majestic Mulpus Brook.

I think it is a great place to see a concert and I am sure you would too.

As a side note, which won't mean anything except to about four people, I attended this show with 4 friends all of which I have been friends with for 35 years or more! I think that was a cool little chunk of information. It was like the 5 of us flashed back to the 80's for a few hours. All of this added up to a memorable night.
These pictures were taken by my friend Barry and though they may appear dark, they are called "art" and you should appreciate them as such.