First of all - happy holidays to all you loyal
RXH fans out there. My apologies for having taken so
long to post what a great time my family had back in
October, seeing RX and Nancy play at a pop fest in
Raleigh, NC. I'll post one picture of the two of them on
stage, and get a few more up as soon as I can. RX played
what amounted to a "Greatest Hits" set - all of his
very best tunes from the first 3 CDs. While we were
disappointed not to hear any of his new tunes from the soon
(keep your fingers crossed) to be released "Basic Glee"
CD, it was quite a rush to hear live performances of
so many songs from "Cornerstone", "Hey Man!" and
"Living Room!!" that we had never had the chance to hear
before in concert (amplified, that is). We all thought
RX, Nancy, and Kurt Reil on drums were THE best
performers of the 10 or so bands we heard that evening. The
Grip Weeds (Kurt's "other" band) also played an
excellent set - lots of energy, great harmonies,
exceptional guitar work from Kristen Pinell. I do want to
give them their due. If I try at this point to attempt
a recall of the set list, I'll mess up. Anyway -
while RX was not particularly demonstrative on stage,
patter-wise, he exuded tremendous energy during each song. His
guitar playing was awesome, he sat at the keyboard for
"Local Paper", he was in fine, fine voice
throughout.<br><br>A bonus was seeing RX sit in on drums with the
Spongetones! Apparently, their drummer was recovering from
surgery and they asked RX to play on just a few days'
notice. Somehow, he managed to memorize their entire
catalog overnight, and played as if he'd been gigging
with those guys on a regular basis for years. While I
would have loved to see RX bashing along to his own
tunes (no offense meant to Kurt, who was terrific!), it
was nonetheless exciting to see RX on his "signature"
instrument.<br><br>My Christmas wish is for RX and band to be back in
the Carolinas sometime again, soon!