The girlfriend and I slept in pretty late in the morning. I'm not sure if it was because of the drinking, the large amount of fried carnival type food, the late night, or some combination of all of the above, but she was definitely not feeling very good for most of the early part of the day. We did go downstairs and she made some breakfast for us and the roommate. Blackberry muffins and bacon. Not too bad a way to start the day. After she had cleaned up the kitchen a bit, she went back upstairs to lay down for a while. I stayed downstairs and watched the hockey game that was on, then came back up to work on some stuff on the computer.
Because she was feeling rather miserable most of the early afternoon, I was doubtful that we were going to make it to the jazz festival to see that last night's performance, but she seemed to be getting better toward the middle of the afternoon, and we got ready to head out to see the show. Her roommate didn't want to come along because he doesn't really care for Brave Combo, who regularly close the show at the jazz festival. Her friend who came the previous night was going to be there though, which was a good thing. She's kind of a kick, really.
It looked like there weren't quite as many people at the festival for the close as there were the previous day, but we still wound up sitting in almost exactly the same spot where we sat for Delbert McClinton's show. This time around, we didn't wind up buying very much of the overpriced and overgreased food, but the friend did buy each of us a corn dog. The girlfriend doesn't like corn dogs because she's a little leery of what might be in them. The friend and I each had one just because they're that kind of traditional carnival type fare that you just have to eat at an event like that.
The band that was playing when we got there was not half bad, kind of a R&B sort of group with a little more jazziness than the usual pap that's played on R&B radio these days. They played quite a few familiar covers, although now I don't really remember what they all were. I do know there was a lot of the old Motown stuff in there, but I couldn't name names at the moment. Might be because of the rum and coke I was drinking out of the bottle at the time, but it also just might be because I'm writing this up a few days after the fact. Maybe some kind of combination of the two. Who can tell?
The event of the night, however, was certainly Brave Combo. The girlfriend had warned me that they were a bit eclectic, which really doesn't bother me all that much. They were actually incredibly good players. The combo initially started out as the lead singer on guitar, a left-handed woman bass player, a drummer and an additional percussionist playing congas, and a three-man horn section of trumpet, trombone, and sax. I mention that they started out that way because almost all of the players aside from the drummer and bassist played various other instruments over the course of the evening. They also seemed to add another percussionist, although it's also possible that I just missed him, because he was sort of stationed behind the horn section. Several other folks aside from the regular lead singer also contributed to vocals, including the bassist, who did a nice little polka sort of number in Polish. Throughout the show, the bass wasn't necessarily all that flashy, but was definitely very solid.
The band played mostly cover tunes, but very interesting versions of them. They played things from all over the place: Latin, polkas, sambas, waltzes, as well as a number of not easily categorized tunes that definitely emphasized the fact that they were, as the girlfriend mentioned, somewhat eccentric. Overall, though, it was a very fun show. Nearly everyone at the place, probably about 1500 people, at least, were standing, dancing along, enjoying the audience participation sections, and generally having a fun, good ol' rollicking sort of time. I was even convinced to do the Chicken Dance, which is pretty much a staple, according to the girlfriend and her friend. And anyone who knows me already knows that me dancing is pretty much not a really common kind of thing, so it must have been a pretty good show for that to be happening. The band did a couple of encores, and then we headed off toward home.
Fortunately, the friend had parked her car near the site of the show, or at least a whole lot closer than the house, so we were able to hitch a ride home with her. Despite the fact that the show was over quite a bit earlier than the McClinton show, the friend had to head on back to her apartment to work on papers or something, so the girlfriend and I just headed upstairs and wound down for a little bit before going to bed. Overall, it was a pretty good end of the day...
Labels: Brave Combo, daily rundown, Denton Arts and Jazz Festival, live music, music, weekend
