Burnin' up the stage
Famous Dave's, Minneapolis, MNJuly 27, 2002 By Mark Fredell Photos © 2002 by Mark Fredell, all rights reserved Saturday July 27th. Marked the return to the Twin Cities of the modern blues fireball Michael Burks out on what has become an almost perpetually non-stop tour since the release of his Alligator Records debut 'Make It Rain' back in 2001, Michael and company have been on the road playing little bitty juke's and major European festivals all the while winning over legions of new fans where ever they go. And it's no wonder why, with his mind plowing brand of incendiary fret work and his deep and soulful vocals Michael and his band have truly caught fire on the blues scene.
Now unfortunately, it seems that Michael and the guys forgot they were in Minnesota where the bars close at one so after the astounding three hour marathon set, the club manager informed Michael that there was only about fifteen minutes of stage time left. So like any real professional musician would, Michael rounded up the guys and hit the stage for another 35 minutes or so. The house didn't cut the sound, they did however bring up the floor lights at about five after one, the band got the message and said good night. So there you have it, not the now common set structure of two 55 minute sets and one 30 minute, no, no, these guys felt bad about being twenty minutes late and made up for it by sweating out an impassioned three and a half hours of unbeatable blues, in the span of three hours and forty minutes. It was amazing and for my money one of the best shows of the year. |
Home
Copyright © 2002 |
E-mail comments to Webmaster: mnblues@aol.com
Web Design & Hosting: BluesOnStage.com
On this night, The Michael Burks Band put on what for my money was quite possibly the show of the year. Being that it was in the middle of road construction season and also the weekend of rib fest, it's not at all surprising that the guys got a bit lost coming from their downtown hotel back to the club in uptown but even though they arrived about twenty minutes past their scheduled start time they quickly made up for it by assaulting our senses with some of the fiercest most compelling guitar driven blues around and after an ninety minute set of un-relentless hard hitting blues, the tardiness was all but forgotten, and then after another ninety minutes (yes, without a break) Michael and the guys figured they would catch a short break before resuming their blistering attack.