Lonesome George--Saturday, March 17, 2012

Screamin' Armadillo · **Posted:** Sun Mar 25, 2012 8:14 pm

Lonesome George ripped it up Saturday night March 17th...

George Thorogood and the Destroyers (what happened to the "Delaware"?) played the local Indian Casino last Saturday night...A friend had two extra tickets, free for the asking, and graciously invited Lady Armadillo and I to come along.

I had seen him before, back in 1996/7, when he opened for ZZ Top (on their Mean Rhythm tour) at Reunion Arena in Dallas...
I remember him putting on a good show--mixing his hits, some cool/interesting covers and his newer songs really well (which is what he did this time, too) It was a good combination of opener/headliner with him and ZZ Top.

The first thing I noticed when walking through the door was the lack of amplifiers on stage. In fact, the only thing that indicated that a live band was going to play there was the (mic'd and Plexi-shielded) drum set and a couple of vocal mic stands. My guess for the reason of "no amps" was because GT plays fully hollowbody guitars and he walks/struts/boogies all over the place, which could lead to feedback problems.

They sounded great, so whatever they had backstage worked very well.

There were five LCD panels behind the stage as well--two narrower ones on either side of a wide one in the middle...those panels ended up being a big part of the show, with well-choreographed videos and images during the songs.
Display during the song "Seventh Son":

At one point, somebody must have gotten to where they missed having amps on stage, so they put some on the LCD screens (Blond Showmans!):

They walked out and ripped into Sweet Little Rock n Roller, and hardly ever let the accelerator up...
Highlights:
(1) Jim Suhler, one of the Greatest of the Great Unknown Guitarists, was playing rhythm guitar most of the night. He took a few solos interspersed here and there, and was the sole guitarist on two songs (see below).
For those who don't know him, pick up any of the Jim Suhler and Monkey Beat CDs...great guitarist, bandleader and sideman, as well as an excellent ambassador for Dallas-Fort Worth style blues. He and George seem to have a very friendly, respectful relationship and it shows--no egos, no sneering, just good rocking.
Here's a VIDEO of Jim playing all the guitar on the old Howlin' Wolf song "Taildragger" (click on pic and please pardon the shaky camera work):

(2) George played better than I remembered from the last time I saw him live...and he was pretty good that time, too. Everybody knows he's an excellent slide guitarist, but I had forgotten how good he was as a "normal" standard/finger-style instrumentalist.
After the show, I took this pic of the "Big Ol' Rack O' Gibsons":

(3) The band was tighter than Oprah Winfrey's stretch pants. That drummer deserves a Nobel Prize for Percussion.

(4) A sax player in the band is good. A sax player in the band who knows when to quit playing is better. A sax player who understands that he's playing in a guitar band and accents what the guitarists are doing is the best.

(5) George hung around and made sure all the kids got picks and all the old people he saw boogying in the audience got backstage (including one 90-year-old woman who was shaking what she had left throughout most of the show!)

(6) The whole band was having fun and it showed--it also elevated the crowd's enjoyment. Nobody took themselves too seriously.

Set list:
Sweet Little Rock n Roller
Who Do You Love
The Fixer
I Drink Alone
House Rent Blues/ One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
Cocaine Blues (very country version, almost a dead-on Johnny Cash)
Seventh Son
Get a Haircut
Bad to the Bone
Move It On Over
Taildragger (only Jim Suhler on guitar)
You Talk Too Much
Born To Be Bad (only Jim Suhler on guitar)
...+ another song I did not recognize.

I bought his new CD, "2120 South Michigan Ave." It's mostly old Chess covers, one Stones cover (the title track) and a few new songs. Buddy Guy and Charlie Musselwhite appear on it as well. It was well worth the cost.

One final observation: Lonesome George is now 62 years old. He's still fit, he still sings well, he looks good for his age, he plays very well and he's all over the stage. There is no way he drinks even half as much as he sings about it...he would be dead!

Great time with good friends...

GTG · **Joined:** Sat Jul 21, 2007 1:08 pm **Posts:** 1307

As experienced as you are, you ought to remember Lonesome George as George Goebel.

Screamin' Armadillo · **Posted:** Mon Mar 26, 2012 3:48 am

GTG wrote:

As experienced as you are, you ought to remember Lonesome George as George Goebel.

I never heard that before.

To me Lonesome George was always Thorogood...Goebel was just the little drunk guy on the Tonight Show, which I rarely saw because my bedtime was too early...

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Lonesome George--Saturday, March 17, 2012

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