A True Rock Star and with Pick Tricks to boot

Holy crap... twenty-four hours later and I'm still feeling the high of seeing Butch Walker live last night at the House of Blues in Anaheim, CA (my bros, Dan and Rich were there, too). It was one of the best shows I've ever seen simply because he is just an amazing entertainer... a true rock and roll superstar.

The guy makes you feel like he called you up and invited you personally to come and see him go nuts. I haven't seen energy like that live since I saw Kid Rock six years ago? Butch struts and poses with sheer rock star confidence that shows he's just too huge for this little club, but dammit if he isn't going to rock the hell out of the joint anyway because he's with friends (remember, he called and invited them all over).

Then there's the pick tricks. He throws his pick in the air, bounces it off his guitar, catches it in his mouth, spits it back out, catches it and keeps playing his guitar... all while singing at the top of his lungs and bouncing all over.

Plus he's got the musicianship and songwriting skills to back it all up. Nearly the whole crowd was singing almost every song... especially during the campfire sing-a-long moment when he came down onto the floor and had us all sit down with him.

For the first of two encores, he and his excellent band ("The Let's-Go-Out-Tonites") did the most amazing rocking cover of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy"... outta control. He introduced it like this: "Goddammit if this isn't the most covered song in the world. But we're going to play it anyway because I like it so much. (long pause and then he says through his teeth as if embarrassed by the addiction) SHIT!" and then they ripped into it.

I was already hooked on his albums and now I know what it means to see someone who completely transcends the medium of recorded music and belts out the same songs with a gripping immediacy and emotional power... you're convinced that right then and there he's feeling the same feelings he felt when he wrote the song. Amazing performer.

And here's a shout-out to opening act, Damone from Boston. Man, they were good... so much so that we all bought their CD right on the spot. Here's a good description of them from last.fm:

Damone is a hard rock band that is influenced by power pop, punk rock, and most notably, classic metal. Their sound could be described as a female fronted Cheap Trick with Thin Lizzy inspired dual lead guitar.