The Saturday Morning “Nobody-Asked-Me-To, But-Here-I-Go-Anyway” concert review: Dr. John & The Neville Brothers

(or, “Why I Will Never Be A Professional Concert Reviewer”…)

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Charlie will be MIA until Monday or Tuesday morning, due to a few of these upcoming reviews. Don’t get your pinfeathers ruffled.

_________________________________________

Well, the reason we ended up back here in Vegas so soon after our most recent trip (and with such short notice) was the chance to see these two acts, both New Orleans legends, and both headliners of this year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. After checking out the lineup for that show, we desperately wanted to attend, but with an upcoming trip to California, just couldn’t swing it. This show was a best-case scenario to get a flavour of the fest, AND see these two personal NOLA favourites.

Of course, if you scroll back a couple of years here in the archives, you will discover that we have already seen The Neville Brothers, a couple of years ago – they opened the show for Linda Ronstadt, and did a superb job back then. More on them later – I should probably start this review at some point…

The co-headlining tour started last night with the ultra-cool Dr. John. You may have heard “Iko Iko”, or his big 70’s hit “I Was In The Right Place (But It Must Have Been The Wrong Time)”, or his terrific duet with Rickie Lee Jones on “Making Whoopee”, from the “Sleepless In Seattle” soundtrack. He’s much better known for his New Orleans music, which is just a delightful blend of jazz, blues, funk, gospel, and styles I can’t even begin to describe. His latest album, “The City That Care Forgot” is an outstanding example of his sound, and we got to hear a few tracks from that recording last night. Highlights? Too many – he had the crowd going insane right from his strut onstage – of all the cool cats we’ve seen to date, this dude personifies cool. His gruff voice, his raw musicianship - just amazing. And, he plays a mean guitar, which I did not know. As an ambassador for New Orleans, this fellow brings that feeling right into the concert hall. I could almost taste the crawfish etouffé…

What can you say about the Neville Brothers? As headliners, they were free for this how to jam out, and jam out they did. They kicked some serious buttockal area up there, and had us old farts up dancing in the aisles several times. There were several solo moments for the four brothers to shine, which they did profusely (OMIGOD, am I gushing? I think I’m gushing…) – over and over again. When Aaron Neville did a virtual acapella version of “Amazing Grace”, you could have heard a pin drop – hell, you could’ve heard a cloud breaking apart.

For the first of our concert events this trip, the bar is pretty high now for the balance…

Chow for now!!