I saw that Ken Navarro was coming in October, and it was on a Friday night! (If a concert is on any evening other than a Friday or Saturday night, we usually just look the other way).
These days, as in many concert venues, you can view a seating chart and actually pick the seats you'd like online. Really convenient. That July, I noticed that there were only a few seats taken so far, so I thought we'd have plenty of time. I got distracted and didn't buy any tickets.
Fast forward to last week, and I get an email from the Dosey Doe announcing the Ken Navarro show, and I checked the seating chart again. Oddly, there were still only a few seats taken. I thought that had to be a glitch, as Ken has about 20 albums out, has won some Grammy's, and has been on top of the charts a few times. So, I purchased a couple of tickets at a table right up next to the stage.
The show was last night. They sold only 28 tickets. It was so sparse our waiter offered to move us up to the Premium seats at no extra charge, right in front of the stage, maybe 10 feet away. Well, fuck yeah, and thanks!
Ken was absolutely awesome. Spellbinding. He performed solo this night (which, BTW, wasn't announced in advance). I knew the Dosey Doe stage was big enough to handle a band with several musicians, even though we had never been to this venue before.
Even though he performed solo, he was still awe-inspiring. On his first two songs, Imagine (by John Lennon), and Message In A Bottle (by the Police/Sting), he played bass, rhythm, lead, and vocals ALL ON THE GUITAR. It's spellbinding. His version of Santana's Europa made my wife and I cry.
Being so close to Ken and watching his every move was extra-special. I was just enthralled by his technique. Later in the set, he broke out one of his new toys, the Boomerang, and performed a song that was just achingly beautiful and complex, all on his one nylon-string acoustic guitar.
Toward the end of the set, he punched up his "band machine" for lack of a better term. Basically he's got drums, bass, saxes, you name it, already recorded, and he plays along on his guitar. It may be "cheap" in musician terms, but it was magical.
Several times during the show, all 28 of us gave Ken a standing ovation. For being such a small crowd, Ken was very gracious and appreciative. It was like he was playing in our own living room.
After the show, he single-handedly manned a table selling some of his CD's. 2 for $20, so we bought a couple and chatted with Ken for several minutes. How often do you get to shoot the breeze with the performer? He even signed the CD's personally.
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| (I blurred my face because of paranoia. I've seen what certain insane people can do online.) |
Oh yeah, on top of all that, this is a dinner-and-show venue. For the price of admission, you get a three-course meal: salad, your choice of several entrees, and your choice of a few desserts. The wife had a grilled salmon and I had pork tenderloin. The food was really outstanding too.
In every way, this was a very special evening. It's rather sad that a city the size of Houston cannot support contemporary jazz musicians any better than it does, but for this night, it worked to our benefit.
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