Review of the Silver Reef Casino - Ferndale WA show

As we walked through the smoke filled casino, the thought crossed my mind: "Oh, how the mighty have fallen". Of course, I was wrong. From the moment I walked into the intimate room, I knew it was to be a special night. I turn to my long time TR - Buddy, Tom (don't we all have one of these?) and said: "No Keys!!!" That said one thing to me, ROCK SHOW, and indeed, it was, and one to remember forever. The set list was basically what you've seen on this tour already, no need to rehash that. Todd was in rare form, both musically, and with just enough crowd banter. The boys flat rocked, with very little wasted time between songs, even when strings were shredded. I also appreciated the band's not making the crowd beg for too long for the killer encore. At one point, I turned to Amy, who has had VERY little TR exposure over the years, and said "He's pushing 60". She was dumbfounded, with the energy level TR was throwing down.

If I had any criticism, it would only be that I would love to hear more of Kasim's voice. He and Jessie provided awesome harmonies to TR, those three voices really blend nicely. I just would have loved to also hear TR and Jessie backing up Kasim. I know K has more of a love song voice as opposed to grinding out hard rock, and yes, this was a great hard rock show, so hard to fault the boys for making that choice.

I'll admit I've always enjoyed the softer songs Todd does, but this was a fun, rocking night. While I would have loved the band to go for more than the 90 minutes they played, I'll admit I got my money's worth and then some. Jessie got sounds from his guitar that must make his mentor proud, and I'm sure Todd has nothing but the utmost respect for his peer on the axe. And what can you say about Prairie. solid, amazing drummer, never too much.

Probably the two stand out songs of the night to me, were: Black Maria, and Hawking. Both were instantly my favorite versions of those songs - AMAZING.

He's still got it. Better than ever. Don't miss this tour.