Southside
Johnny may have been a little under the weather (bad cold), but he and the
Jukes nevertheless managed to put on a great show for a large, appreciative
crowd at the Birchmere Saturday evening. They started with an abbreviated
version of “Talk To Me” (doing the full version later), then moving right into “Angel
Eyes”. Other highlights included “Better Days”, “Love On The Wrong Side Of Town”,
“No Easy Way Down”, and a tremendous cover of Jimmy Cliff’s “Many Rivers To
Cross”, sung by keyboardist Jeff Kazee. They got to “The Fever” near the end,
with Johnny’s voice clearly flagging, so the band then gave him a break by
belting out an extended version of “Lookin’ For A Love”. He then returned for “Havin’
A Party”, but didn’t have enough left for any encores (so we missed out on the
traditional “I Don’t Want To Go Home”). I don’t think anyone felt cheated under
the circumstances, since the show still ran over 90 minutes.
The
Fredericksburg-based Ashleigh Chevalier opened with a 30-minute set,
accompanied on guitar by Bruce Middle. Her repertoire blends genres, with
flavors of folk, country, and blues. Nice voice, although we weren’t
particularly blown away by her original material. She did do a nice version of
the blues classic “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do.”
Enjoyed the
Margarita Chicken Salad, and (unlike last time) managed not to make any wrong
turns on the way home.
