Once again I couldn't resist and took the fifty-mile drive from home to my favorite venue to catch my favorite band, on the least-favorite time of the week, Friday night, when the notoriously bad Los Angeles traffic is at its worst. It took me almost two hours to reach my destination, but unsurprisingly, I was fully rewarded by Beau, Shorty and Pete, the three boys from Cochtotan.
Beau was on fire and so were Shorty and Pete. Nothing unusual here, as their delivery is always stellar. As expected, we had some unannounced musical guests, which quite predictably, turned out to be Jackson Browne and Dave Alvin.
Introduced as Dark Shit, Dave Alvin was quick to state his correct name, No Shit, spelled K-N-O-W Shit, as he put it. He then went on to sing three songs: "California Bloodlines", one of John Stewart's gems, the self-penned "Johnny Ace Is Dead" and the traditional "East Virginia". The latter sounded fabulous and so was Dave's guitar playing - watching him trade licks with Beau was truly special.
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| Dave Alvin at McCabe's |
The evening's second guest, Jackson Browne, a.k.a Brown Shit, sang "Yabba Dabba Do", "Call It A Loan", "Running On Empty", "Take It Easy" and "Our Lady Of The Well".
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| Val McCallum, a.k.a Beau, and Jackson Browne at McCabe's |
The evening's highlight was the band's encore, "Ugly And Slouchy", which quickly turned into a fast-paced rock-n-roll medley that was absolutely first-rate. I also loved Shorty's vocals on the Who's "The Seeker", a song that featured Ringo Shit on drums (Ringo Shit is Charlie Faragher, Dave's son).
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| Bassist Dave Faragher, a.k.a. Shorty, at McCabe's |
The evening kicked off with the Brothers Gage, Alex and Brody, two young kids who came out of the blue. Their rendition of "House Of The Rising Sun", complete with great harmonica playing and surprisingly good vocals, was very well received by the crowd. Later in the show, the Shit Horns also made an appearance.
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| The Brothers Gage at McCabe's |
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| The set list (loosely followed) |
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| The stage |
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