The RRB Is All Grown Up
Last Friday, a crew of us braved the Firehouse Saloon for a show by the Randy Rogers Band.
It's been an unusually long time since I've seen Randy Rogers, whose Texas music career has just blown into the stratosphere since the release of his Radney Foster-produced CD (which actually appealed to me less than Like It Used To Be).
The Firehouse, which tends to draw true (insurgent) Texas country music fans, has always been a friendly venue for the RRB. And Friday, it was PACKED. That was the worst I've ever seen the place. At $15 a pop, it had to be one of the RRB's best nights ever, anywhere.
And the RRB put on a darn fine show for the fans, many of whom sang along with every song.
The band sounds tighter than ever. They've punched up the sound, and picked up the tempo a bit (perhaps taking into account Jerry Jeff Walker's notion that you put country music on your records, and play rockin' country music for live audiences). Brady Black's fiddle is prominent, and drives the sound on many sweet country songs. And of course Randy's fine country voice singing songs he's penned himself is the main attraction.
But fresh off signing their major-label deal with Mercury Nashville -- the label of Shania Twain and Terri Clark -- I think it's safe to say that the Randy Rogers band is all grown up now. There's no more insurgent country talk. No more belittling the Nashville Musical Shite Factory. No more "Kenny Chesney can kiss my ass" in the middle of the Kasey Chambers cover, now dropped from the setlist. The biggest chance he took the whole night was a "Kinky Friedman for governor" comment during "They Call It The Hill Country," which was probably enough to get him in trouble with his drummer. Oh, and he did a brief impersonation of Joel Osteen, but I'm not sure if anybody caught it (it was late in the evening).
The RRB is taking care of business. Most of the ad-libbing is gone. It's a tighter, more professional show than it used to be.
They're all grown up now.
And good for them, I guess. Only an asshole would begrudge those guys the success they're finally seeing, and I certainly don't. But it does make me appreciate some of the live recordings I have from the early days, when Randy was an up-and-coming Texas country music rebel, the band featured a sweet pedal steel guitar, and Randy could actually spend a fair part of an evening arguing about health care policy in El Campo, TX with a table of political geeks who happen to love Texas country music.
I'll be looking forward to catching them at the Mucky Duck on August 30, and maybe even getting a chance to say hello and congratulations in the absence of the Firehouse throng. I highly recommend catching him one last time in a venue the size of the Mucky Duck. I don't know that there will be many more chances.
On a slightly down note, the band that opened for the RRB (the Sidehill Gougers) did nothing for me. They're a Texas newgrass/folk outfit that plays pretty well and has gotten some decent press, but features a couple of vocalists whose sound is generously described as screeching. Worse, their front man talks WAY too much and AND he has a nervous titter that punctuates every second sentence on average. It was very unfortunate, as we've seen mostly good bands open for the RRB. Isn't it odd that about the time the RRB gets big, the openers get less big?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/24/05 21:49 | Music | Technorati
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Comments
ehh HEEH HEEH HEEH HEEEEEEH!
For me, the night was over when they dragged that lead singer from the sidehill gougers back on stage during Randy's set.
Posted by Chris Elam @ 08:46 on 08/25/05
SCREECH SCREECH SCREECH
The chick who couldn't harmonize with Randy on the Parsons' tune was painful.
It's cool that Randy still does that (lets the opening band come up and sing a tune with him), but not so cool when the opening band hurts my ears. :)
Posted by Kevin @ 09:46 on 08/25/05
Kevin,
Do you think Randy will have his full band with him at the Duck?
Posted by Gary C. @ 18:39 on 08/25/05
Gary: I think it's gonna be the full band. Usually, Randy's website identifies shows that are solo (or him and Brady Black playing acoustic together). There's no such indicator for that date, so I'm assuing this is going to be a band gig.
It's liable to be a rowdy one -- 10$ for a single show, when the Firehouse was PACKED at $15.
Posted by Kevin @ 08:51 on 08/26/05
Well, in that case, I sure hope he brings his whole band.
Posted by Gary C @ 21:31 on 08/26/05
DO these guys have a political agenda? I love "They Call It The Hill Country" and it echoes some of my own sentiments. And I'm glad I'm not the only one that likes Kinky.
Posted by Bryan @ 18:21 on 09/16/05
it's funny to see what people say about true art when it's placed in front of pat green fans. to be great is to be misunderstood, i suppose. the rrb was probably about the only group of people there that get it. keep on gougin' gougers. these people are idiots...
Posted by katherine thomas @ 20:51 on 04/18/06
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