.....in concert at the One World Theater in Austin.
I've been a Dave Mason fan since the sixties.
I think his albums from the early seventies, "Alone Together" and "It's Like You Never Left" are as good today as they were then.
I've bought and listened to his music on vinyl records, 8 track and cassette tapes and now mp3s and DVDs.
He and five other musicians played very acceptable versions of "We Just Disagree," "World In Changes," "Let It Go, Let It Flow," "So High," "40 Thousand Headmen." "All Along The Watchtower," "Feelin' Alright," "Every Woman In The World," "Only You Know And I Know," "Look At You, Look At Me," "Show Me Some Affection," "Shouldn't Have Took More Than You Gave" and "Dear Mr. Fantasy."
Dave didn't perform "The Lonely One," or his tasty covers of Carole King's "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" and The Eagles' "Love Will Keep Us Alive."
The One World Theater suffers from inadequate rest room facilities, crowded seating and a very hilly location which all combine to make pissing, performance enjoyment and parking difficult, but, on the positive side, that venue is intimate and not all that far from my house.
Dave sang and played very well and his band was good too.
He's just a couple of years younger than I am and he continues to do our generation proud.
A drummer, a second guitarist, the keyboardist, bassist and a swing man who moved between percussion or another keyboard and guitar were his sidemen.
All those backing musicians sang harmony, which is so prominent in those songs.
But Mason's familiar, expressive voice wasn't always loud enough in the mix and the bass player was almost always way too loud in my ears.
That bassist had nice chops and an entertaining stage presence, but I thought his playing patterns and lines were sometimes overly complex and, more importantly, too often so loud that they competed with Mason's voice and all the other instruments for attention.
Having played bass in bands constantly since the fifties, I personally found this fellow bottom dweller's overplaying, on songs that I know quite well and have played for decades at gigs myself, especially problematic, irksome and sonically disturbing.
The bass's volume wasn't too loud because of a mixing board mistake; that band member was simply too loud coming out of his own stage amp.
And Dave certainly needed better managed vocal amplification done from a mixing board towards the back of the room, so the sound engineer could hear what the audience was hearing (or not hearing), instead of from a location just off to the side of the stage where he couldn't do his job adequately.
We went to see and hear Dave Mason and his voice was poorly presented.
It was especially bad for my wife, since she was less familiar with his songs.
I already knew all the words, chords, harmonies, instrumental leads and arrangements, so my not being able to hear the lyrics well didn't matter as much to me since I could sing along with Dave in my head.
Nevertheless, I dug the experience and I bought a commemorative t-shirt, before laboring up and down multiple stairways leaving the building and stumbling though the rough, rocky parking lot to reach my car.
I've been a Dave Mason fan since the sixties.
I think his albums from the early seventies, "Alone Together" and "It's Like You Never Left" are as good today as they were then.
I've bought and listened to his music on vinyl records, 8 track and cassette tapes and now mp3s and DVDs.
He and five other musicians played very acceptable versions of "We Just Disagree," "World In Changes," "Let It Go, Let It Flow," "So High," "40 Thousand Headmen." "All Along The Watchtower," "Feelin' Alright," "Every Woman In The World," "Only You Know And I Know," "Look At You, Look At Me," "Show Me Some Affection," "Shouldn't Have Took More Than You Gave" and "Dear Mr. Fantasy."
Dave didn't perform "The Lonely One," or his tasty covers of Carole King's "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" and The Eagles' "Love Will Keep Us Alive."
The One World Theater suffers from inadequate rest room facilities, crowded seating and a very hilly location which all combine to make pissing, performance enjoyment and parking difficult, but, on the positive side, that venue is intimate and not all that far from my house.
Dave sang and played very well and his band was good too.
He's just a couple of years younger than I am and he continues to do our generation proud.
A drummer, a second guitarist, the keyboardist, bassist and a swing man who moved between percussion or another keyboard and guitar were his sidemen.
All those backing musicians sang harmony, which is so prominent in those songs.
But Mason's familiar, expressive voice wasn't always loud enough in the mix and the bass player was almost always way too loud in my ears.
That bassist had nice chops and an entertaining stage presence, but I thought his playing patterns and lines were sometimes overly complex and, more importantly, too often so loud that they competed with Mason's voice and all the other instruments for attention.
Having played bass in bands constantly since the fifties, I personally found this fellow bottom dweller's overplaying, on songs that I know quite well and have played for decades at gigs myself, especially problematic, irksome and sonically disturbing.
The bass's volume wasn't too loud because of a mixing board mistake; that band member was simply too loud coming out of his own stage amp.
And Dave certainly needed better managed vocal amplification done from a mixing board towards the back of the room, so the sound engineer could hear what the audience was hearing (or not hearing), instead of from a location just off to the side of the stage where he couldn't do his job adequately.
We went to see and hear Dave Mason and his voice was poorly presented.
It was especially bad for my wife, since she was less familiar with his songs.
I already knew all the words, chords, harmonies, instrumental leads and arrangements, so my not being able to hear the lyrics well didn't matter as much to me since I could sing along with Dave in my head.
Nevertheless, I dug the experience and I bought a commemorative t-shirt, before laboring up and down multiple stairways leaving the building and stumbling though the rough, rocky parking lot to reach my car.
