I drove down to Joxer Daly's Irish Pub, knowing that Graham was going to sing. Stepping inside, I saw a Japanese guy and his friend among about 40 other people. The guy was wearing a Schenker shirt, so I guessed that he was Masaya. I was correct. He was there from Seattle and his friend was from Tokyo...just for this show.
The basketball playoffs were on, so instead of 8:30, Graham was scheduled to start at 10:00. The bar was really small, and the stage could only fit three people across pretty much shoulder to shoulder. It was in a corner, so the drum kit was wedged in the back. Masaya introduced me to Jman and his friend who had flown out from Tulsa for the show. Around 9:30, Graham came out and started having some beer and talking to people while John Thomas and another guy on bass started setting up. I went up to Graham when he wasn't busy and he was really glad to say hi and sign three of my albums. He looked at the Impellitteri album and said "Oh my gosh....man" like he was surprised that anybody had this CD. He wrote 'thanks for listening Jon' on all three, and offered to shake my hand. Very cool guy and very friendly. Surprisingly, he doesn't look any where near as bad as he does on the back of TDIWM. Looks like he does on the Forcefield albums.
Game ends, yuppies hang around, and the announcer goes to the mic and says to put our hands together for a rock legend...MR. GRAHAM BONNET. A few people clap. Masaya, his friend, Jman, his buddy, my friend and I give the big scream and clap, then the music starts. Now I was under the impression that since the place was so small, and a majority of people weren't there for Graham, that it would be some acoustic low level show. Not true.
Before the guitar started, Graham goes to the mic and SCREAMS as loud as he can. Awesome. Then they lay into a blazingly loud song from TDIWM. We were stuck standing in the middle of the room about 15 feet from the stage. The greatest thing is that the music completely freaked out all the chicks and yuppie guys hanging out after the ball game, so they cleared out like scared rabbits, leaving us all to get the front table.
The show kicked ass. A career spanning setlist with Graham screaming and singing at the top of his lungs. Awesome guitar and music. 11 songs, with Graham joking around, and by the end he was soaking wet with sweat. His voice is as powerful as ever and quite scary if you think you have a strong voice yourself. Afterwards he talked to us, although he did say his voice was weak. During the show he thanked Jman and us all for coming to see the show, and seemed a bit embarrassed because it was only a warm up gig.
That's it. Now I'll give you the setlist.
1. SPIKED!
2. DON'T LOOK DOWN
3. ISLAND IN THE SUN
4. SOS
5. ONLY ONE WOMAN
6. GOD BLESSED VIDEO
7. WILL YOU BE HOME TONIGHT
8. ALL NIGHT LONG
9. DANCER
10. SINCE YOU'VE BEEN GONE
11. OH! DARLING
THAT'S IT.
jonG
All these photos taken and copyrighted by Masaya & Kaz
