Mastodon

Dave Mason at Tarrytown Music Hall

Send to Kindle

Last night was our eighth concert at Tarrytown Music Hall, and our third Dave Mason show (first one at the Hall). I covered the previous shows extensively here and here.

To summarize the things that were the same: Dave Mason is beyond awesome. His voice is still amazing, and his fingers move across the guitar like butter. The old songs are as magical today as they were then. The news songs (he recently released a new CD called 26 Letters ~ 12 Notes) are wonderful as well, showing that he hasn’t lost a step in all these years.

DaveMason
Dave Mason

The band (each and every member) is fantastic.

That said, there were a number of differences last night, some even notable. 🙂

Two band members who toured with Dave last year, and were at both of the shows we attended, have been replaced. I tried (reasonably hard, but hardly exhaustive) and I couldn’t find any articles explaining their departure. The band page has scrubbed their existence.

The links to their bios from my previous posts still work, but they point to the new person playing that instrument. Strange. In fact, now that I looked, one of the links that worked before was to a name of someone that was already gone from the band. In other words, they replace pictures and bios on the site, but keep the old links…

Anthony (Tony) Patler replaced Bill Mason on keyboards and vocals. We both loved Bill Mason’s singing and playing, so I’m sad (for him) to see him gone (unless it was his choice to move on). Tony was incredible last night, both on the keyboards and on vocals, so the band didn’t lose any magic in swapping him in.

Johnne Sambataro and Tony Patler
Johnne Sambataro and Tony Patler

Gerald Johnson replaced Alex Drizos on bass. Alex didn’t sing, but Gerald does, on a few numbers. Gerald used to tour with Dave back in the 70’s, so he’s no stranger to the music. If you read my past posts, you know that I think very highly of Alex on the bass.

Gerald Johnson
Gerald Johnson

Like with Bill Mason above, I can’t find a mention of why Alex is no longer with the band. Like with Tony above, Gerald is absolutely incredible, in fact, better than Alex (in my opinion), so the band lost nothing here either (though fans of Alex certainly have…).

Johnne Sambataro was as incredible as he’s been at the previous shows. He’s a crowd favorite, rightfully so!

Alvino Bennett was again amazing. Last night was a treat for me personally, as in both previous shows, I had very restricted views of Alvino, and I’m a drum nut. Last night, he and Tony were on an elevated platform behind Dave, Johnne and Gerald, so Alvino and his drum set were in full view. The man has guns for biceps!

Alvino Bennett
Alvino Bennett

Last night posed a few challenges for Alvino. He broke three separate drums (I assume the skins) during the performance. Dave kidded that Alvino doesn’t know his own strength!

In one number, I noticed him unscrewing a snare drum and handing it to a stage hand, while the song continued. He never caused a disruption, using his bass foot pedal, and occasionally his right hand to keep the beat, while repairing his drum in real time! Unbelievable!

As with the previous shows, Alvino didn’t take any solos, but was solid as a rock. He’s a master drummer.

The one other major difference last night was the venue. If you read my post yesterday (which I’m not linking to because it’s way off topic for this post), then you’ll find what I’m about to say ironic. 😉

Tarrytown Music Hall is a wonderful old theater. Even though the seats are ancient, they are extremely comfortable. We were in the seventh row and had a wonderful line of sight to the entire band. The sound system was excellent last night, and all of the instruments and mics were set at the appropriate levels relative to each other.

Given that we were facing the stage (as opposed to BB King, where you generally have to contort a bit because you’re at a dinner table), the entire experience was as excellent as we could have hoped for.

Dave Mason was on stage for 95 minutes, including his signature encore of Feelin’ Allright.

Opening for Dave Mason last night was the TJay Trio. TJay is good guitarist. One thing that he does particularly well is seamlessly switch between lead and rhythm playing. That’s good, because he’s the only one playing each style.

TJay
TJay

His singing is pleasant enough, and he certainly hits every note, but I didn’t find his voice that interesting, and it was nearly impossible to catch any three words in a row (which was not a problem when Dave Mason was at the mic).

Correction: Nick Soto played the bass, filling in for regular TJay Trio bassist Mick Houser. Afterward, Nick sat across the aisle from Lois for the Dave Mason set. He’s extremely good. I thoroughly enjoyed his play throughout their set!

Nick is constantly moving on the stage (he has tons of energy), and Lois was unable to get a single shot of him that was in focus. Sorry Nick, this was the best of a bunch of bad ones…

Nick Soto
Nick Soto

Correction: Bryan Rinaldi played the drums, filling in for normal TJay Trio drummer Rob Gueli. Nothing flashy, but very solid throughout the set.

Bryan Rinaldi
Bryan Rinaldi

They played a nice mix of rock, blues and jazz and received enthusiastic applause from the crowd after each number. They were on stage for 40 minutes, and warmed up the crowd nicely for Dave. They were also well-matched genre-wise to be an opening act for Dave.

One footnote regarding last night in relation to the night before. There is little doubt that the crowd last night was as in love with Dave Mason as the crowd the night before was in love with Yonder Mountain String Band. And yet, nearly everyone sat in their seats all night, until the encore (I’m not counting the standing ovations).

This isn’t a mark of their age, lack of energy, or lack of love of the artist. It’s a mark of their respect for their neighbors, who came to see the same show, with certain expectations. It was a thing of beauty to see the one woman who was dancing at her seat for 1/2 a song, finally realize that no one else stood up to follow her lead, and she quietly sat down with no one having to say anything to her. 🙂

In order to avoid the typical parking problems in Tarrytown before a show at the Hall, on both Friday and Saturday nights, we came to town 30 minutes early, parked four or five blocks away, and walked to Main Street Sweets for some Ice Cream.

On Friday, it was our first time ever at Main Street Sweets (I read some excellent reviews online of their home-made Ice Cream). Obviously, it was good enough to schedule our return for the next night. It’s a block and a half down Main Street from Tarrytown Music Hall, so it’s easy to relax eating some Ice Cream, and time it to walk into the Hall whenever you like.


Posted

in

, ,

by

Comments

11 responses to “Dave Mason at Tarrytown Music Hall”

  1. venessarinaldi Avatar
    venessarinaldi

    Hello, thanks for writing such nice things about the opening band! just a quick note about the drummer ( Rob Gueli) he's TJ's drummer but the guy that played that night was just filling in for the night. His name is Bryan Rinaldi.

  2. hadar Avatar

    Venessa, thank you very much for the correct information on the drummer. I don't write things down when I attend the shows, so sometimes, when there are substitutes that aren't pointed out, I just assume I heard the name incorrectly.

    I've updated the post above, and bolded the word “Correction”, so that if someone else re-reads the post, they will know I had it wrong the first time.

    Thanks again!

  3. Karina K Avatar

    Hi there! Thanks you kindly for writing about the TJay Trio! One more correction in addition to Vanessa's… The bassist was actually a fill in as well, His name is Nick Soto (not Mick Houser). Thanks again! Should anyone want to visit TJay and the TJay Trio go to:

    http://www.myspace.com/tjaymusic
    http://www.facebook.com/tjaymusic
    http://www.tjaymusic.com

  4. venessarinaldi Avatar
    venessarinaldi

    Hey thanks so much for correcting it so quickly! I've forwarded your blog to so many people that I know would love to read it. So thanks again!!

  5. hadar Avatar

    OK, I now corrected Nick Soto as well. At least Nick/Mick sound really close, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it! 😉

    Please don't tell me that the part of TJ was played by someone else, I'll just be crushed. 🙂

    Anyway, Nick Soto was superb, so I'm really happy to know his real name, so I can continue to look out for him.

    Thanks Karina for taking the time to get the correct information to me!

  6. Mick Houser Avatar

    I watched a video clip from the performance and I agree, Nick Soto was very good. Although I haven't met him as of yet, he did a terrific job interpreting my bass lines, which I greatly appreciate. It's a thrill to watch someone else perform your work. The band as a group sounded quite good and I enjoyed watching them. Great job whipping the live band into shape in a hurry, TJay.

  7. hadar Avatar

    Excellent! Thanks for letting me know. I think it's very cool that these were your bass lines, and that Nick was being faithful to them, rather than just making up his own on the spot. I look forward to catching you live one of these days! 🙂

  8. Princess12 Avatar
    Princess12

    HEY,

    jUST WANTED TO SAY, THE DRUMMER BOY WAS AWESOME!!! SECRET ADMIRER

  9. Princess12 Avatar
    Princess12

    HEY,

    jUST WANTED TO SAY, THE DRUMMER BOY WAS AWESOME!!! SECRET ADMIRER

  10. Hadar2000 Avatar
    Hadar2000

    not a problem…what is your email address so i can send the pics to you….

  11. David2000 Avatar
    David2000

    no prob! plse send your email address to this account to view the pictures…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *