Drove 7 hours, no regrets - it was glorious
by Straitjacket on 4/28/25Fillmore New Orleans - New OrleansRating: 5 out of 5This was one of my best all time concert experiences, here's why:
1. The people - everyone was so excited, 28 yrs bred fanaticism amongst the fans. It's true, absence makes the heart grow fonder and this was like being able to see a family member who passed away 28 years ago for many of us. On top of that, there were ample new fans who just have an appreciation of what AB was doing at the time, as there's been a resurgence of people looking for real music and not radio formulas.
2. We met with a group of folks before the show at Audie's grave to pay homage to a young man whose life was ended far too early by the bad decisions of another- and it had severe ripple effects amongst his family, friends, and fans.
3. The performance- hearing some of my favorite riffs, dax's vocals, and many amazing songs teleported me back to a point in time... and it made me, who is otherwise stoich, very emotional.
4. The boost for the band members- I could see smiles on everyone's faces, even though it looked like Dax was trying to conceal it. I know it was probably a bit stressful to re-learn, and they clearly wanted to give the fans a good performance as they stopped a couple of times to tune, or redo a part to get it right.
I saw the merch lines were long, I spent hundreds there myself. I know the band gets a lot of merch proceeds, and I was glad to hear that confirmed by the merch table staff. This band was robbed of sufficient financial compensation for their art and performances... and it's good to see them get paid for the quality art and work they put out so many years ago.
In summary: They truly had one of the best sounds from the era and the lyrics were dark and never relevant to my life, but thinking about them always helped me find equilibrium. To hear these songs played again in front of me and friends who also reunited to see the show was touching.
The performance sounded amazing, especially Dax's vocals, the guy can just flat out sing.
I would recommend this show to anyone, even if they don't have the long history with the band- the sounds and performance stands on their own merits.