Pat Travers
Orpheum Theatre
Wichita, Kansas
March 20, 2009
Set List:
Life in London | Crash and Burn | I Don't Care | Heat in the
Street |Elijah | Getting' Betta |Ask Me Baby | Stevie | Red
House | Possession Over Judgment Day | Snortin' Whiskey | Boom
Boom Out Go the Lights
Encore:
Statesboro Blues
A sparse crowd gathered at the
historic Orpheum Theater in Wichita, Kansas on Friday, March 23rd.
The venue only holds 923 at full capacity and this night there
could not have been more than 150 in the audience. It is a sad
day when good music is not supported by a community, despite
tickets being only twenty bucks, and the show being on Friday
night. Travers had not been to Wichita in years either, so it
wasn't overexposure that caused the poor turnout.
One must give kudos to Travers,
though, as he played a tight set of his classics, a couple of
blues standards and one new song. The audience was yelling out
requests to which Travers smiled and said, "That is usually not
the kind of request we get. The kind of requests we get usually
don't feel good and they don't really fit where they tell us to
put them." To make matters worse, the sound crew was
inexperienced and Travers had to pause between each song and
direct them to turn things up or down in the band member's
monitors. One could not have blamed Pat if he played five
songs, said goodnight and got the hell out of Dodge. But, he
didn't. He jammed and played his heart out. He gave a huge
debt of thanks for the hospitality of the shows promoters and
acknowledged that they worked really hard to put the show on.
He even promised to come back.
Travers opened with "Life in
London" followed by the surreal "Crash and Burn." Both of these
songs showcase what The Pat Travers Band is all about. They
play rock n' roll that is hard to pigeonhole into one specific
genre. Often times one can hear the blues, rock and even a
little reggae and jazz thrown in for good measure - and that is
just in one song! "I Don't Care" is a solid rocker that is one
of the hot spots on Travers' new live CD Stick with What You
Know. "Elijah" went over well with the few, but faithful,
crowd but it was "Getting' Betta" from 1977's Puttin' It
Straight that got the crowd making noise and featured one
of the best guitar solos of the night.
Travers let the crowd know a new
Pat Travers album has been recorded and will be mixed and
released in 2009. He preformed a song from the yet untitled new
album called "Ask Me Baby." The song was blues oriented and, to
be honest, rather forgettable. "Stevie," from 1976's classic
album Makin' Magic
featured killer harmony guitar runs and Pat's booming vocals.
"Stevie" was the best-performed song of the night and those
in-the-know cheered loudly in appreciation.
Travers told the story of being
13-years-old in Canada and getting to see Jimi Hendrix in
concert. He then ripped through a powerful version of the blues
classic, and Hendrix favorite, "Red House" and followed it with
Robert Johnson's "Possession Over Judgment Day." Pat has been
paying homage to the blues since early in his career and has
released several blues albums over the years. Once his tribute
to the blues was over, he wasted no time going directly into the
classic "Snortin' Whiskey." He followed with his most popular
anthem, "Boom Boom Out Go the Lights" and the small crowd made a
big noise during the call and response section of the song. At
the end of the classic tune, Travers took a bow and left the
stage. It is inspiring watching Travers get caught up in the
moment and lost in the music. He truly puts every ounce of
energy into every lick, note and lyric.
If ever there was ever a city
that was not deserving of an encore, it was Wichita on this
Friday evening. Travers, however, knew that those who came to
see him were amongst his biggest fans. He came out for a
rousing rendition of the classic "Statesboro Blues" and then
called it quits for the evening.
The show would have been better
if Pat had been playing before a packed house. Travers is the
type of guitarist that can sense the audience giving back 100%
to him and this allows him to take more risks and push his own
limitations. This night, however, the motto was 'the show must
go on.' Travers muttled through a poor sound system and a less
than stellar audience but still gave an above average
performance. Travers was a consummate professional and
delivered the goods, both musically and vocally, proving that he
must really be hooked on music.
