Picnic Music: Blue Onion

Tuesday evening I attended another one of the Picnic in the Park concerts. This concert was by a local Kalispell band, Blue Onion. The band plays blues music with a rocking edge.

While I can often hear traces of various blues styles and influences in other blues bands, this band seems to have their own style. Since they like to rock the blues I expected to hear traces of Stevie Ray Vaughan. I didn't (unless it happened when I was deep in conversation with Gary). A few times I was reminded of Jimi Hendricks playing the blues, but that was because the two electric guitarists were rocking and dominating the blues songs like Jimi used to do.

In addition to a drummer, the band had a keyboardist. The band had energy and were very tight in their playing. Many times it seemed like they were jamming instead of merely playing. One felt the music instead of merely listening to it.

An excellent band to hear.

One of the concert sponsors was the Montana Coffee Traders. Their banner proclaimed 25 years of business: 1981 - 2006. Hmmm... an old banner perhaps?

Initially I sat closer to the front but the band played so loud I moved towards the back of the crowd. The crowd was smaller than usual. I am not sure why. Perhaps the cooler weather kept some people from attending. Not that the weather was cold, but 70 degrees after weeks of 90s seems cold. I noticed less kids dancing in front of the stage so perhaps less families attended the concert.

When I moved locations I ran across my hiking buddy Gary. Colleen was a no-show.

Gary and I caught up on events since Colleen and I last saw him a few weeks ago. He is very busy as usual. For part of the concert a young couple danced to the side on a back sidewalk. Gary knows the couple as they also dance at one of the music venues he also dances at. The Kalispell high school has a swing dance club and this couple were two members. They were very good dancers. Gary would tell me they dance steps/styles the dancers were doing. Gary enjoyed the music by Blue Onion and was interested in dancing to it someday. He sure loves to dance.

During the last song a woman at the other end of the bench I was sitting on was making "Whoo!" sounds. She really got into the music.

The gazebo's and park's lights came on before the concert was finished. The days are losing minutes of light. Since the last Picnic in the Park concert two weeks ago I found it gets a little dark by the time the concert is over at 9 pm. Or 9:07 pm as the band played an extended last song that was requested by a fan.

Then it was a long bicycle ride home.