8x10, again!

Anders Osborn
John Gros
We sat on the fence all week and all day about whether we would go back to the 8x10 on Saturday. One one hand, it was been there, done that. After all, we had seen Anders Osborn five times before (the last concert was less than we expected) and we had just seen John Gros with Papa Grows Funk last week. Finally, at the last minute, we ordered 3 tickets, called Tasha, and took off to Baltimore. We got there just as John sat down at the keyboard. We moved toward the front corner and basically stood in the second row of people. John Gros is amazing on the keyboard. His fingers just fly! If you continue to watch, it is almost as if the keyboard sends a shock through his fingers up to his body, and there is a slight lift/jump when it hits him. It's great! Anders came out to accompany John on a song or two, and that's when we knew Anders was going to put on a good show. They did an old Little Feat song, "Willin'", which we enjoyed, being Little Feat fans. John finished up and a little while later Anders and his crew came out, rockin' to begin with and started the set with "Stoned, Drunk, and Naked". The crowd was jumping! I managed to get in the front, despite the raver beside me. She had these two sticks with round lit globes on the end with a red tip on the end. Frankly, I thought they looked like two lit up breasts, but what do I know. She had plastic rings that also lit up. She was actually rude about the space she occupied, letting everyone around her know it was HERS. Anyway, she waved those sticks around like she was guiding an airplane down. "It's all fun and games until someone loses and eye." Back to Anders, he is fascinating to watch. He does not have much interaction with the crowd (although he did last night). It's all about him and the guitar. He struts, moves his head, lips move, tongue sometimes, totally into the music. That was last concerts problem, too much into it. I was standing right by Kirk Joseph, the sousaphone player who provides the bass line. Sweat started pouring down his face right away. It's amazing how he totes that thing around like it's nothing! These two guys, Anders and Kirk, smoke like smokestacks and still can put out energy! They kept it going with just enough jamming to keep them and the crowd buzzing. Before we knew it, the first set was over. Wow! We stayed for the second set. John Gros accompanyed them for quite a bit. I had fun watching the interaction between John and Kirk mainly. We had a rockin' good time! We left after 1am, staying for only one song of the encore. We got home around 2:30ish. I'm actually thinking we should have stayed for the entire encore, maybe they would have played "Ho-di-ko-di-ya-la-ma-la". Ha! Still feeling it! I love seeing fun, good,live music!