Bill Toms at club cafe

somewhere on the Southside are my exhaustive notes detailing the epic Bill Toms and Band show this past Friday at the Club Cafe in the Historic south side of Pittsburgh.

The band consisted of the unorthodox line up of Bill Toms and Mark O on acoustic and electric guitars, Phil Brontz on sax and percussion and Bernie Herr (who turned 65 that day!) on Percussion and Drums. There was understandably some trepidation at this set up. I have seen thousands of concerts in my life and have NEVER sees such a line up except for maybe a one off here and there. The band was augmented at times by up and comer and opening act Olga Watkins and Tom Breiding on vocals. So we all settled in and waited.

The opener let us know that we were in for something special as Bill opened with Hard Times a slow BURNING version of the old gem from his catalog that really focused the attention on the ensemble - which was tight. The first thing I noticed was that Phil played damn near as much percussion as sax. Secondly that these guys were on a mission. This was not just a unique sound but a powerful and compelling one as well.

The entire set list is in the ether. However with the second song (Lord Don't take me Now) the audience found out that this was not a slow acoustic strumming evening. It burned. Great forceful drumming and screaming slide guitar rocked the joint. You could feel the protagonist holding on.

The show featured much of the forthcoming record but also featured Bill's ever growing impressive career gems. With every new song, anticipation grew for the new record. I know Bill is holding back some of the songs for the cd release so wow this is gonna be something.

And they just kept coming new and old.

The highlight was the full band acoustic version of the west end kid. This songs is great acoustic, full band and now in between. The video has already gone viral and rightfully so. This just proves that a great song can be done any way.

Sadly the show was over and every one's appetite was wet ted for more. We'll just have to wait. In the mean time check out the video from the show (which is on my facebook, youtube and everywhere).