Victor Wooten

I've got an astronomy test in five hours. Did I stay up late last night studying? No! I went to the House of Blues! Victor Wooten!

For those sad strange little people who don't know who Victor Wooten is, he's basically the Michael Jordan of the bass guitar. When I saw that he was coming I totally didn't care that it was on a Wednesday night. So instead of staying in and doing schoolwork last night I boarded the streetcar with a couple friends and headed off for the Quarter. After getting kind of lost we eventually made it to the famous New Orleans House of Blues. It is the coolest venue ever. You have to go down this crazy alley and then through a restaurant and every surface is covered with all kinds of murals and art and paintings of awesome bluesmen. The concert hall itself is awesome too, it's a lot smaller than I imagined, so I got to get really close to Victor.

The opening band, the Lee Boys, were incredible. There was a guitar, a 7-string bass, a steel guitar, drums, and a trombone. They ripped! And when they sang, which wasn't often because they were mostly just totally jamming it was gnarly gospel! Who woulda thunk that "Jesus loves me, this I know, because the Bible tells me so" could sound so straight up cool?

After they got the crowd warmed up Mr. Wooten himself came onstage. It was just him and a drummer. V.W. and J.D.: two minds one groove, is what they kept saying. And they were throwing down some serious grooves. The stuff that dude does with his instrument is just mind blowing. Towards the end of the set he brought out 3 of his kids and they did a couple of songs. His daughters, 11 and 6, sang like little angels and his 8 year old son kept a rock solid beat on the drums. It was awesome. For the last couple songs he brought the Lee Boys back out and they just played. It was pretty incredible.

If you ever get the chance definitely go see Victor Wooten.