30 December 2001

RK at the Mucky Duck

I caught Reckless Kelly at the early (non-smoking) show at the Duck last night, and wasn't very impressed. I'm not sure if the blame lies with me, since I had been working on the dissertation all day and my brain was just kind of fried, with the crowd (why do so many people pay 15 bucks to go drink and talk, especially at the Mucky Duck, a great venue for serious music fans?), or with the band. But it seemed to take them a LONG time to get into the show (perhaps because they had already played once, earlier in the day, at the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio). And they were also using a new bass player (Jim McFeeley, who used to play with George DeVore and maybe still does?) who played bass well enough, but didn't supply the harmony vocals of usual bass player (and songwriter) Chris Schelske -- whose absence went unexplained by the band (though I've heard a rumor). And whoever did their sound mix had the bass turned up WAY too high, so it just overpowered the rest of the band (who were playing acoustic). Lots of bass is great in a big dance hall or concert arena. Too much bass in the intimate Mucky Duck makes for a crap performance.

One bright spot was David Abeyta, the band's lone Sooner, who continues to play a mean guitar. In the few instances when the bass wasn't drowning him out and muddying everything, Abeyta sounded better than ever. It's a shame the rest of the band didn't match him last night.

[Posted @ 10:28 AM CST]