Darkness and the Blues, Baby.

You never know how important something is to you until it’s gone. I had my electricity turned off this weekend. Not to worry, it’s back on now. But as I was sitting in the dark on that cold and lonely night I realized again how easy it is to take for granted all the good things we have around us. I mean, hell, electric light? When was the last time I even thought about electric light? Sure, even with no electricity or heat, I still had a candle for light, a hour or so of power left in my laptop, and plenty of juice on my Gameboy DS (and a fully charged SP in reserve, heh), but still, it puts things in perspective.

I helped out at the blues festival that the school put on this weekend. Pretty much a whole lot sitting around interrupted by bursts of heavy lifting. I wish there was more for me to do, but the other folks seemed to have everything well covered and I think I was more or less getting in the way, knocking out plugs and stuff. The actual concerts were pretty good. The MCLA jazz band played both nights and they were pretty decent. The first night had Misty Blue, who were very good. The singer was excellent and had a great voice. Charles Neville played sax for them and he was awesome. Papa Grows Funk out of New Orleans played next, and they were pretty damned groovy. Funk is the right word. Their drummer was fantastic.

The second night was excellent, too. The jazz band opened up again, followed by the Connor Meehan band. Not exactly sure who the hell Connor Meehan is, but everyone seemed to know him and he was a great drummer. His band frickin’ rocked. The guitarist/singer in the band, whose name was like Steve Ives or something, played and sounded like Clapton. Good Stuff. The last band was the Michael Hills Blues Mob, and they were amazing. Michael Hill played some sweet electric blues on a Les Paul, with a dash of acoustic in the middle of the set. They played mostly original songs, with a bit of Muddy and Jimi thrown in. “This Is My Job”, “By George”, and “Blood on Your Hands”(not sure of title on this one) were the standouts. They were a very tight band and the crowd was definitely groovin’ by the end. I would have bought their CD if I wasn’t flat broke.

It was interesting hanging out with all these musicians. I haven’t been around that type of crowd in a long, long time. Their passion and talent was very apparent, they seemed so excited just to be playing music. I feel kind of inspired, and I want to start practicing guitar again. I am so rusty it is not even funny though. And my guitar being 130 miles away isn’t too helpful either.

A friend who I haven’t seen in a long time came out for a visit and that was cool. We hung out at the Gallery and got some nice sushi. It was very cool.