Sunday, January 29, 2006

New Kid on the Block




There is a new music venue in Beaumont and, last night, it immediately became my favorite. We (me, Terry, Dan, Roger and Melissa) started our evening at the best Chinese restaurant in Beaumont, Great China. From there, we went to the Star Bar to see a little of Jack's (formerly Wang Chi) favorite local band Nine Station Drive.

Around 11:30, we decided to go to The Back Room and see The Chris LeBlanc Band. The Back Room is a small club inside of Cactus Canyon. You can tell from the pictures that intimate is an understatement. The sound system is fantastic and the arrangement of the tables downstairs and rail seating on the balcony upstairs makes for an up close and personal music experience.

If you were anywhere else in Beaumont last night, you were in the wrong place. Chris plays a wide variety of music but his specialty is the blues. My favorite performance of the evening, however, was a cover of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta love. It was an amazing rendition. Chris was joined onstage by Brent Coon (local attorney, music promoter, Image 6 guitarist) on backup vocals.

I have more pictures from the evening posted on Flickr (see the sidebar). Future shows at Cactus Canyon are Leon Russell on 3/9 and Little River Band on 3/30. I've seen both of them recently and they still put on fantastic shows. I don't know if they'll be in The Back Room or if they'll be in the front portion of Cactus Canyon in the larger room, but when we saw Styx at Cactus Canyon, the sound was excellent.

Check out Chris' website for future shows. He told us he'll be in Germany for most of March but if he is ever in your neck of the woods, do yourself a favor and get off the couch and go see him.






5 comments:

Mommy said...

Yeah, Chris LeBlanc is pretty good. One of Brian's other BR musician friends has been playing at Antone's alot, so you might have seen him. His name is JD Wallace and his new band's name is something like "Sweet Root". (I'm not totally sure of that) With JD out front, though... they have to be good.

:)

Lorna said...

Did I tell you I'm SO moving to Beaumont?

Laurie said...

Jen - That doesn't sound familiar to me and I really keep up with who's playing at Antone's. I'll look out for him.

Lorna - By the way, the high temp today will be 71 degrees. :)

Renee said...

You are such the party animal. I'm jealous whenever I read about you going out and seeing these great bands. One day, me too maybe . .

Laurie said...

Renee - Well, you know my baby is 25 years old. It makes a difference.