[DesertTwang]

After collecting all their albums, I was very excited to finally see the Marshall Tucker Band live. I was aware of the fact that only one founding member remains at this time (lead singer Doug Gray), and that this show might be one of those "aging rock 'n' roll band refuses to give up" kind of concerts, but since the original band will never be back together, I figured it'd still be the next best thing to the old line-up. I even packed my wive and baby in the car for a long weekend and we drove 100 miles to Phoenix so I could go to the concert.

Unfortunately, it was not a great experience. I ended up leaving before the concert was over, something I had only done once before in my 30 years of seeing live shows.

It wasn't Doug's voice - at 71 years old, I didn't expect him to still sing like he used to, so that didn't bother me.

After the first few songs, Gray turned to his sound man and said, "Pay attention, man, pay attention." I could tell something was bothering him about the sound. I had no idea what it was, since the sound coming out to the audience was great.

Then he went off stage while his band played a long jam of "Take the Highway." I thought that was odd, too. When he came back, Gray grabbed the mic, turned to one of the guitar players and said something about too much or too little low end. Still addressing the guitar player but speaking into the mic, he then nodded toward the sound man and said something that left me speechless:

"You know, I always wonder how these things can happen when we pay those guys so much money. Maybe he needs to have his *** kicked."

At first, I wasn't sure if he was making a joke, but he wasn't. I shouted, "Not funny!" which of course was totally lost in the audience's giggling.

After that experience, I found myself unable to enjoy the show. Their next song was "Fire On The Mountain," my favorite MTB song, which I have played often with my own band, and I had very much looked forward to the band playing it. To my surprise and disappointment, I barely recognized the tune and thought to myself, "Boy, I think we sound better when we do this tune with our band."

I grew listless, stayed for one more song and then decided to leave early and swing by a record store instead. Something else that struck me as strange was the fact that the merch table sold only T-shirts, no recordings of any kind, which made me wonder whether there might be legal stuff going on...?

What I'm wondering is this: Was my experience a weird, one-off occurrence or is there a pattern with this particular band/artist?