Well I had made a mental note to try and catch Umphrey's McGhee at Stubbs, but didn't realize it conflicted with the Frank Marino show. Frank won because I already had the tickets.
I estimate that Antones was filled to 80% of the capacity last night, and started thinning out about 2 hours into the show. The average age of the crowd was about 44 years old. Nothing unexpected here.
Frank's band consisted of a rhythm guitarist (who played a Strat and also played Electric Violin), bassist and drummer. The show lasted a little over 3 hours, but I can honestly say that I would have been happy if he had stopped at the 2 hour mark.
There was nothing wrong with Frank's playing, he's very accomplished. He's an encyclopedia of 70's and 80's rock guitar technique. Basically, extended guitar soloing, over grooves. Honestly though, I found him repetitive after a while. Robert Fripp deliberately moves his students to NST, to avoid pattern playing (among other reasons), Marino's playing reminded me why this is.
For most of the night, he played a Gibson SG and I estimate he sang on only 4 songs. He needed to sing more. He performs a lot of covers, of which I specifically remember Voodoo Child and Red House. He also did a somewhat interesting version of Amazing Grace (making the guitar actually sound like Bagpipes in spots). Surprisingly, he did not play Strange Dreams,
which might have been interesting without a keyboard player.
All in all, a good show, but not great.
