Hopeless Jack, Fuzz SoLow, Prophet Greene at the Dive Bar, Thursday August 12, 2021

It's hard to believe that it had been seven years since Hopeless Jack was last in Vegas, but I'm glad he was finally able to get back out here, despite COVID and other setbacks. His drummer couldn't make it this time, but Jack made up for it by bringing his lovable (and large!) dog, Zeus, with him, who was the hit of the night!

I started off the evening in my Prophet Greene guise, a solo set with just me, my guitars, and a drum effects box to keep a beat behind me as I run through my versions of old blues tunes. Every time I do a Prophet set, I try to change things up a bit and this time I attempted to learn from my past errors and the set seemed to run reasonably smoothly which means that I had a good time. The crowd was sparse but appreciative and so it was a fun way to start the night. Of course, I wasn't able to take pix of myself, so if anyone has any, lemme know!

 My fave local one man band, Fuzz SoLow, was up next, running through his interpretations of classics along with his own numbers, with his Strat run through a splitter (to add bass to the sound) and Fuzz playing a minimal drum kit to keep a rhythm running. He blasts through a hip medley of "Crossroads" and "Red House" (not quite sure how he combined those two, but he did!), as well as "Manic Depression" (he says that he was named after Hendrix, after all), an original simile about him being a turtle, another original "I'm a Sinner", a literal cigar box slide guitar tune, some funkiness and prerecorded tracks in between number while he changed guitars or tuned up. Always entertaining, always fun, always talented. Hopefully the pandemic will cool off enough so he can get back out on a regular basis.                                                                                                                                                           

Jack was planning on touring with a drummer this time out but the gent he had been working with is a firefighter and is now saving lives dealing with the disasters in California, which, I suppose, takes priority over playing the Dive Bar, at least in some people's minds! So, Jack decided to continue on his own and so he is playing acoustic and electric guitars plugged in and he is also using a signal splitter to give him some bottom end. On top of that, he had an "electric boot" - a cowboy boot with a contact mic attached, which essentially sounded like a bass drum when he would stomp his foot, so that he could keep a pulse to his songs. In this situation, his presentation was more like a super hip singer-songwriter - he is a terrific writer - with a great voice. Plenty of finger-pickin'/slide guitar originals like "Die Yuppie Scum", "No Money Here", "I'm a Killer", "Nice Shoes" (based on pick up lines he heard guys giving strippers) and a heart felt tune about his sister who took her own life, that was interrupted by Zeus leaving the stage to pee! - along with covers like "If I Were a Carpenter" (Ramblin' Jack Elliott version), Skip James' "Hard Time Killing Floor", "Sweet Little Angel" and more. A super strong set and always great to see Jack performing and interacting with the audience. 

Once again, thanks to Nate'n'Angie and the Dive Bar for setting up such a fun night and to soundman Josh for making everyone sound good! Looking forward to the next one!