We were really psyched to go down to Norwood on November 8th, have dinner with our friends, share our shock at the election results, and go see the Dave Keyes Band in a rare NE gig. It was on the calendar, I had the directions open in a tab on my computer, and then we forgot! Luckily our friend Pam texted us that they were leaving the restaurant for the venue (The Fallout Shelter), and we said OMG and jumped in the car and dashed down there.
A fuck-up on our part but they saved us a couple of seats and we only missed a few songs, sidling into the seats in front of the stage, under the telescoping cameras. They're really well set up to record/stream music from there (the concert is on YouTube), and we found the Fallout Shelter nice, small, with good sound (they got the volume way up there by the end of the set), and just right.
Dave was on his electric piano, wearing a trilby (guess he out-grew the scally cap) and dressed in his embroidered, black outfit. He had Frank Pagano on drums, Jeff Anderson on electric bass, Chris Eminizer on tenor sax, and Arthur Neilson on stratocaster. Dave played mostly originals in the first set, including his new show-stopper, The Invisible Man (written with Doug MacLeod, who's much older than he is) and his Faith Grace Love and Forgiveness. He also did his tribute to health workers, 7 O'clock Somewhere, and closed with Ain't Doing That No More and Rosetta Tharpe's Strange Things Happening.
We all gabbed some during the pretty short set break, and then the second set was even better. He opened solo with Leon Russell's classic A Song For You, dedicated to Pat, and covered some great gospel and blues, a couple of Robert Johnson covers (including a dark, dark Hellhound on My Trail), besides throwing in a few more originals. His fingers aren't slowing down at all. For an encore he did an absolutely funky, greasy, rockabilly version of Dylan's I'll Be You Baby Tonight, totally different from Burl Ives's cover.
We all milled around and gabbed for a long time after that, hadn't seen most of our college friends since before the pandemic. And the Fallout Shelter was mice enough not to kick us out. But finally it was time to go out into the suddenly Fall-like, windy and spitting night, and then drive back home, much more slowly than we'd driven down there. A great evening that we almost missed!
