While checking his website for info on the full-length release, I notice he's coming to a small bar downtown. Tried pulling a couple of strings for comps, but no luck. What the heck, it's a $12 ticket, so no big deal, just hoping for the workload to soften enough to allow me to attend. Then the venue is changed to the Plaza, making it a bit more of a drive, but I figure ticket sales are pushing the 300 max of the bar. It's a GA show, so maybe now they can wedge 500 or so into the small theater. Next comes the addition of two opening acts, pushing the stage arrival of the Tyler Bryant Band back to a 9:00 - 9:30 window. Excellent. Then the work schedule finishes my day at 9 PM less than a mile away from the venue. Perfect! Now let's just hope there are some tix left...
When I arrive, I can hear someone playing and the lobby is virtually empty, but someone is still manning the ticket booth. Maybe I've missed the first song or two, but I could still get in. Pay the man, grab a Bass Ale, head inside. There are around three hundred humans watching the five-piece band on stage. First clue: TBB is four guys. Then I notice that the average age of the kids onstage looks to be closer to +/- 15, not TBB's 20. Then I notice standing in front of me, a couple of grinning 40 year-old guys high-fivin' each other, asking other people how they liked the band. Proud fathers. Ah, so it's a local group of kids getting the opportunity to be on the same bill as a future star. Now I know why the venue was changed from the downtown bar. It wasn't the ticket sales, it was the audience age group. I don't know the name of the band, and I don't care (more on that in a minute), but they were fair. The keyboardist had some chops, but that's about it. For other fifteen year-olds, they were great; for relatives, they were brilliant; for me...hurry up and finish, will ya?
And they are done...and two-thirds of the crowd hit the exits, including the opening band. Schools are out of session, it's 9:15, where the heck are you going? Show some respect and class and stick around for the band who kindly allowed you to share the stage with them. You're in a rock band, so you want to do what they do, right? Why don't you hang out for a few and see how it's done? Granted, it's most likely the parental units fault (don't get me started on the "I/Me/My" generation), and I hope someone locally reads this and tells them all how pitiful an example they've set for their kids.
OK, enough ranting. So now you have maybe eighty-five people in the room for the TBB, who took the stage mere minutes afterwards. Leaning on the stage are seven teenage girls, holdovers from earlier, and an equal number of slightly older attendees. And that's it. Everyone else is hanging off to one side of the room or the other. So I march my happy ass to a point center stage, eight feet back of the fourteen teenage legs, with not another soul around me, happy as a lark! I know I had to look funny to everyone behind me, but it didn't take long before I had company. Oddly enough, most of those who joined me were my age or older. God, I hope it's not just old fart rockers who see the talent in this kid. Anyway, here's how close I was (and I could've been right on the stage if I wanted). This is when the band took a break and Tyler was on his own...
He claimed to have failed to pack an acoustic for this road trip, and I believe him, because this show was all about ROCK! No blues at all. Well, that's not totally true. TB jumped down onto the floor right in front of me (I thought I was recording it but the damn camera stopped after two seconds) and toyed with a few blues licks. I said out loud, "go ahead, you know you want to," but he's obviously going for the straight-ahead rock road, sort of like Joe Bonamassa's real rock tunes. As proof, I'll go ahead and give you the only other recording from the show that I could squeeze from the camera...
By the way, the newest addition to the group is the second guitarist who happens to be the son of Brad Whitford of Aerosmith fame. Watching him, you could see his dad in the mannerisms and poses, and he may be a better slinger than papa. The rhythm section are the aforementioned Belmont alums, so they are intelligent and talented.
I really wasn't familiar with any of the songs, but that didn't matter. These young men played a 75-minute set as if the place was packed. Very professional for twenty year-olds
Class act...
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