Another Dead Man's Party Concert - 10/27/06

(Originally Published 10/28/2006)

I missed the Vatos’ show. Unfortunately I was not able to make it to SoCal last weekend. That pissed me off. The silver lining for me was that I still got to see a Halloween Boingo show. For me, DMP is Boingo from the 80s. The fervor and sprit of Rob and the band is what I saw from Boingo in the 80s.

Last night was the 10th DMP show I have seen (do I get a award?). I have now driven from Arizona to California 10 times just to see a band. How pathetic is that? I guess I am a familiar face now. Before the concert, the “trumpet guy” (inside joke there) Jake came up to me and shook my hand. It was nice of him to remember me. I found out later that he lives in AZ too. Hey Jake, next time we can carpool!

This is my first mixed review of DMP. Driving home, I had a lot of time to think about the show and would like to share my thoughts. As disjointed as I can be, I will try to keep focused on two main points in this review: technical stuff and spirit stuff.

I want to start of by saying last night was another GREAT time. As usual Rob and crew put on an intense show. They had many “new “ songs and a couple surprises. The show opened up with “Insanity”. I am pretty sure this is the first song I have seen them perform from the “Boingo” album. The performance was great. The band was tight sounded great. However, The main vocals were not there. I could not hear Rob singing at all. By the end of this song, they got it together.

The problems with the main vocals seem to go on all night. Rob’s microphone kept fading in and out. One point during “Grey Matter” Rob was singing and I couldn’t hear him at all. I would imagine this annoyed the hell out of some people. For me, I could have cared less. The crowd was singing to every song and the combined energy of the band and the crowd made up for the sound issues.

The Surprise of the night (besides the dude in the yellow Vegas Showgirl costume) had to be the performance of “Don’t go in the Basement”. What a great song AND they nailed it. Great job guys. Another nice surprise came when they performed “Water”. I have a lot of basic rules in my life. One of them happens to be any performance I see with a Mandolin is brilliant.

Once again the horn section was tight. Performance wise, they did not miss a beat with the new trombone player. He is a great replacement musically (that comment means something as I am a low brass player). However, I missed Darin’s enthusiasm. Darin brought a lot to the show and he was missed.

At some point during the show, Rob thanked the crowd. He pointed out a few people and then pointed right at me and said “and you, I’ve seen you at a lot of shows, thanks”. Rob, I thought we had a moment last show (at the Belly Up) when you blew me a kiss. Bummer, such is life J.

This review would not be complete without commenting on Mike Ryon, The lead guitarist (“Bartek”). I watched him and listened for his stuff tonight. I got to say Mike is a brilliant player. He is so focused on playing and ads a lot of his own stuff when he can. Mike is a great musician and does a remarkable job trying to fill the shoes of the best guitarist in the world.

Overall the show last night was brilliant. Another 2 ½ hour marathon complete with a mosh pit and a stage dive. The energy and enthusiasm of the band and the crowd made up for any “technical” issues. It was great to see a packed house, hear some “new” stuff and get a chance to slam dance. Great job guys! (Sorry for not having a set list, I was busy abusing my body on the dance floor)

I got home to Phoenix just in time to host a Radio show on www.radiofreephoenix.com (replayed 10/29 @ 3 PM AZ time – 2 PM Cali time). I led the show of with Cry of the Vatos. 26 years later and I still can’t get enough of this music.