--- In doobiefans@yahoogroups.com, inspmark@... wrote:

I wanted to get this online while the festival is still fresh in my
mind.

The lineup included Pat Jr., Lara Johnston, Tower of Power, Huey
Lewis,
Lydia Pense and Cold Blood and the Doobies.

Pat Jr. was very good, but he'll improve with time. His guitar
work was
quite good and he takes after is Dad in this. He was teamed up with
a female
singer and their first song was "Me and Bobby McGee". I'd give it
a B

Lara was next and can that girl sing. She ended her set with "Free
Ride"
with Tom guesting at guitar. I have a few photos of him just
beaming as she
sang that I'll post once the roll is used up.

I've never heard of Lydia Pense and Cold Blood, but Bruce introduced
them as
a classic band rooted in the San Francisco 60's, and they intro'd
some songs
as hits from then. They sounded great, but I'm lost where they are
concerned.

I've seen Tower of Power before, at the Solano County Fair back in
1989.
They rocked then and they rock now (PS: Russo guested with nearly
every act
today on sax!!).

Then came Huey Lewis and the News. Huey gave the Doobie a great
kudo by
telling the audience that, after the very first HL&N album the
Doobies took them
under their wing and toured with them and Huey said that it really
helped
him and his band make the big time.
They were in great form and did most of their hits and did on encore.

Here we had the usual "auction" for the National Veterans Foundation
and its
founder noted that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the band
reuniting for benefit concerts in 1987 for this organization and the
Doobies selling
out the Hollywood Bowl faster than anyone since the Beatles that
year...a
record that still stands from what I gathered during this speech.

NOW for the Doobies. Tom is BACK but his throat problems are still
a bit
evident. He had to sneak a few drinks of water during songs and
Pat handled
some lyrics for him in his first song. But Tom did China Grove and
Listen to
the Music and handled his parts alone and great. He didn't hit
some of his
usual high notes but he opted for an octave or two lower and he
still came
through.

Pat made a speech about this concert being for the National
Veterans
Foundation and that we are currently creating more war veterans
every day on at
least two fronts, Afghanistan and Iraq. He went on to add that he
thought we had
gone through the war "for our generation" in Viet Nam but it seems
to him
that Iraq may be the war for our generation instead, and asked the
audience to
think...and not just be blinded by the media.

I thought his comments were well thought out and he avoided
condemning
Republicans or Democrats, but I think his message was clear (and I'm
a Democrat
from the Nixon era). I'm also a disabled Veteran and I am SOOO
proud that my
favorite band does this for my fellow veterans.

The band finished with the usual Listen to the Music with most of
the lineup
joining in.

The only negative comment I have is that when the Doobies opened
with
Dangerous the volume levels were so high that the sound of the music
was distorted
and it actually hurt my ears (and I was about halfway up the lawn
in the
middle area...so I can't imagine how the people up front handled
it). This also
happened when they appeared there two years ago.

All they need to do is turn down the volume a bit and it would have
been the
best show I've seen....and having Tom back more than made up for the
damage
to my hearing!!!

Mark



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