Last week, I caught Bruce Hornsby (and, one would presume, The Range) at Wolf Trap. I had been looking forwards to this show for quite some time — I had previously had two opportunities to catch this show, but things feel through for one reason or another.

As the show got started, the weather was clearly going to be an issue. A stereotypical DC summer day, hot, humid with little wind wasn't going to do much to address physical comfort, much less the tuning issues of acoustic instruments. But, I guess that's one of the drawbacks of dealing with outdoor venues.

The show got started, and things were moving right along. But something was amiss. I'm not sure if it was the stifling humidity or what, but the crowd was comlpetely dead. Not a spot of energy from the crowd. And that affected the band. After a while, it seemed like the band was just phoning it in.

The music itself was unremarkable. Given Hornsby's playing history (some bluegrass, some jazz, lots of years with the Dead), I had expected more. This show was jazzy-ish improv for people who don't want surprises. Everything was safe, no challenges to anyone.

A word about the band. It featured Sonny Emory on drums, Doug Derryberry on guitar/backing vocals, JV Collier on bass, Bobby Read on sax/woodwinds/vocals, John "J.T." Thomas on second keys, Bruce Hornsby on keys/vocals and R. Hornsby (his nephew, local to NoVA) on second guitar. Bruce's nephew just seemed to be scared and out of his depth the entire time. He did some nice soloing, but his accompaniment playing was sparse and it seemed like he was ust trying to find his way through the tunes. It's nice of his uncle to give him a break, though.

I did manage to take some photos. The seats were in the 2nd row, but way over to the side. So not only was there a rather limited visual range, we were out of the throw of most of the main speakers. The show actually got much better walking around the back of the venue on the lawn.