Dave Keyes was back at TCAN in Natick in the last month of Winter, playing with the Popa Chubby band, which included Stefano Guidici on drums and Paul Loranger on bass. Dave's keys were sounding as good as ever, ranging from the tinkly piano sound he gets to a rich organ sound. But Popa Chubby was absolutely on fire and was vastly entertaining himself.
Picked up Sarah after work at Alewife on Friday the 28th and headed on out to Natick. During rush hour this can take over an hour easily, but we were perhaps a few minutes ahead of the worst traffic and made it out there without much fuss and suddenly were an hour early. It's been raining a lot this late Winter, the only snow on the ground is in the shadowy parts of parking lots, and the rivers we crossed were full.
We headed for The Kells Beer Company and a few good non-commercial beers (joined by Walter). The band was doing their sound check at the time and old friend Dave was singing. We were in the right place! Soon went over and joined the usual suspects at Dah Mee, where we had an excellent Asian fusion meal ... I got stir-fried seafood. Then walked the few blocks back to TCAN, where we ran into Dave in line.
The room wasn't quite sold out but was pretty packed by the time everybody got beers and the band came on. There was no opener this time and they got right to it. Popa Chubby opened with the title track from his new record, It's a Mighty Hard Road, and then whacked us over the heads with two of the best songs of the evening, an absolutely down, dirty, and solid Rollin' and Tumblin' and then a brilliant, long cover of Hendrix's Red House. They announced right off the bat that there would be only one set, and this was a long, long one, riveting all the way through.
Another highlight was a surf rock medley leading into Chubby's take on Over the Rainbow (which he'd also done the last time he was at TCAN), and he jammed and jammed on that until he'd milked most everything out of that classic melody. Chubby had gotten married recently and actually played a few ballads he'd written for his new wife, one of which was sung to the tune of Eyes Of the World. Most of his songs were from the new record.
Dave only got to sing a bit, as opposed to when we'd seen them before, but this was an album release show and as I say, Popa Chubby was just incredible. His fingering sometimes seems to be taking a lot of concentration but this night just flowed effortlessly, and was blurringly fast. We were in the center of one of the back rows, right in front of the soundboard, and so the balance was excellent. TCAN is a nice room but I feel it could use a few more speakers. If we'd seen that performance at optimal volume I would still be happily recovering.
Hung out with Dave a bit after the show but then he had to pack up. They have two more shows this weekend, ending in New York, and then Dave gets a break from the road. It's a long drive home from Natick, but there was still very little traffic and we got back right at midnight.
