There I was, coffee in hand, just beginning to start my channel surfing on
the sunny, summer, Saturday morning of August, 7, 2004, when I happened to
stumble across Boz Scaggs' performance on the Today Show, as part of their "concert on the plaza" series. I had not even realized that Boz was still performing these days, and was quite surprised at how great he looked, and, most importantly, how great he still sounded - nearly 30 years past his prime. This performance and others were primarily undertaken to promote his just released Greatest Hits Live DVD and CD sets. I now, of course, had to run out and buy the DVD.

Greatest Hits Live was taped live at the Great American Music
Hall in San Francisco, on 27 August 2003, and was captured by seven cameras in high definition video. This intimate venue was the ideal place to see a Boz Scaggs concert, as the hall is stunningly beautiful, the small crowd is right on top of the band, and the acoustics are fantastic. After keeping a rather low
profile throughout the '80s, following his heyday in the '70s, Scaggs became increasingly active throughout the '90s and on into this decade. This show covers a wide range of his career, going all the way back to his self titled debut album from 1969, with "Loan Me a Dime", all the way up to his 2001 Dig album, with "I Just Go".

The concert begins strongly with an energized version of "Lowdown", that features some fine, funky bass work by Matt Bissonette, who seems to be playing with just about everybody these days, and an exceptional guitar solo by Drew Zingg. The ballad "Slow Dancer" follows, which shows off the beautiful vocal talents of background singers Ms. Mone't and Barbara Wilson. They play an integral role on almost every song
this night. Another ballad follows, and then we are treated to the bluesy, pop
sounds of Earl King's "It All Went Down The Drain". You would almost swear you were listening to a Robert Cray performance during this song. The delicate Silk Degrees ballad "Harbor Lights" is performed next and things continue in this fashion - ballad, r&b song, ballad, blues song, etc - for the rest of the show. My one personal critique of this performance is that most of the songs are played very faithfully to the original versions, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I enjoy seeing this style of music cranked up an extra notch when played live, such as maybe adding a touch more distortion to the guitars, and improvising a little more on the instrumental passages. Compare Toto's live performances versus their studio stuff, to see what I mean. "Breakdown Dead Ahead" and "Lido Shuffle", two of Scaggs'
more rockin', upbeat songs, for instance, both sounded a little tepid, when they
should have brought the house down.

Article Author: Paul Roy

Paul Roy is a network administrator by day and amateur music DVD critic by night. When not attending as many live concerts as he possibly can, Paul likes nothing more than to kick back with a good concert DVD and rattle some walls. …

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