Marin Center

User Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The Veterans Memorial Auditorium at Marin Center is a very nice theater that hosts a wide variety of concerts and other cultural events. My first visit was to attend the Buddy Guy and Elvin Bishop concert on November 13, 2009. It was a little tricky finding the entrance access at night off Hwy 101 for this first timer, but I finally found it on my second pass. They could use a few signs pointing the way after you turn off on Freitas Parkway.

As for the concert itself, I go way back with Bishop, having first heard him as a kid when he was second guitar (to the late great Mike Bloomfield) in the great Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the mid-1960s, which introduced me to the blues. I've seen him several times subsequently fronting various bands. However, I'm frankly not a huge fan of his current work, which is pretty much the same set he's been doing for the past couple decades. And his brand of "blues" isn't really my favorite. It's kind of an amalgam of "bluesy" rock and R & B with some country influences, some of which is catchy & some kind of monotonous and boring, at least to my ear. And while a competent guitarist, Elvin isn't and in my opinion never has been in the first rank. There are a lot of blues guitarists out there today who are his betters. So I guess my appreciation of Elvin is more nostalgic than anything. As for Buddy, it was the first time I'd seen him live, though I've been a fan (of both him & the blues) for many years. He performed a very dynamic hour and a half, which included some great guitar work by both Buddy and his backup guitarist, as well as the keyboard man. Buddy had some humorous asides and interplay with the audience and reminiscences of past times (he's 72 now!) and some of the greats like John Lee Hooker, Albert King and Eric Clapton. One of the highlights of the evening was when Guy spied a ten year old kid in the audience with a guitar and when the kid answered Buddy's query in the affirmative about whether he could play, Guy asked him onstage. They strapped Buddy's guitar on the kid (which was about as big as him!) and Buddy just told him to do his thing accompanying him on "Stormy Monday Blues." Whenceforth the kid proceeded to produce some really good & "knowing" blues licks interspersed with Buddy's singing, much to the amazement of both Buddy & the audience. The kid showed a real "feel" for the the timing & grooves of the blues and got a standing ovation. Maybe the next great blues star?

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