El Mocombo

Benefit for Sick Kids organized by Dave Glover of Sizzling Productions (he produces instructional guitar videos). This was not what you would call running smooth. First of all it was poorly attended. The Casby Awards were the same night, but that’s not exactly the blues crowd. Anyway, I went to check out some of the local blues guitarists that I hadn’t heard yet. Tony D. was set to open the show (which was set to start at 8 p.m.). At 9:30 Tony D. walks on stage. We get ready for some music. Then Tony D. gets his coat from behind the amp, puts it on, and leaves the stage. The club was not full, but there were a lot of people who had been waiting a long time. Ten minutes later he appears with his guitar, plugs in, sets up – then leaves the stage. Finally, he takes the stage and his female bassist/singer launches into some rocking (sizzling) blues. Donny Walsh of Downchild sat in and sang a song that should have been called “How many times can I sing ‘been so long’”? All the sizzling guitar playing seemed to melt together at a certain point and by the time Jack deKeyzer took the stage, I had reached telecaster overdose. I was glad to stick it out to the end of deKeyzer’s set because it was something to see him blaze through his finale undeterred by not one but two broken strings.