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.