Jimmy Buffett

Garp · 02-03-2009, 13:00

Last night I had the pleasure of going to see Jimmy Buffett play live.
Before I met Lana's father I had only vaguely heard of him before in odd Scrubs references by J.D. Her father and bro-in-law are huge fans. Lana and her sister are pretty good fans in no small part because it's the music of their childhood, courtesy of their father.

Out here it seems he's rather huge. His fans are called "Parrot heads" and turn up to gigs wearing either grass skirts, dressed as pirates, wearing shark hats or parrot ones. The age range of fans spread anything from 8 - 108, or so it seems. It's kinda understandable why.

Last night, Lana and I, along with her Dad, sister and bro-in-law went to see him playing at the Waikiki Shell here in Hawaii.

He's nothing special, really he isn't. I wouldn't buy any of his albums expecting to be taken on a musical journey, or have my brains blown out by the amazing licks or whatever. He plays good ol' rock and roll, with hippie influences and a dose of laughs thrown in for good measure. He really does nothing special, and yet manages to succeed in creating a memorable musical experience. Strange how that works. I'd happily pay to attend more of his Gigs and I can't honestly tell you why

If you get a chance I'd say he's worth a shot.

One cool thing I didn't expect, Jake Shimabukuro, who is somewhat of a local celebrity and well known world wide as the "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" Ukulele player (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puSkP3uym5k) is a regular in the Jimmy Buffett band and was playing last night. Not too prominent an instrument when played with the entire band, but he did an amazing duet of that song with the Steel Drum player. I'm not a fan of steel drums it must be said, but last night was an exception to my general rule. The dude playing was mind blowingly awesome. Steel drums in my experience have always been loud and harsh sounding. The dude last night who hailed from Trinidad, was producing the most incredible range of sounds out of those drums, far beyond anything I've ever heard done with those drums before. In some kinda bizarre way he and Jake created a really memorable variation on the theme.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2897567...80467/sizes/l/

I was rather far away from the stage and my poor camera can only to a 6x zoom, but that's Jimmy centre stage with Jake to the right of him.

A couple of cool random things from last night: 1) I met the forensics guy who was the principle consultant for the original CSI. Around 2/3rds of the first two series were based on his files. Interesting factoid: the equipment they use on CSI is actually all real. The lab could in theory be used as a full forensics investigation lab if necessary. Usually they just use shells of equipment, all the outer stuff, none of the inner. The background people in the labs are all full season extras who get trained to use all the equipment properly. What those extras are doing in the background often looks pretty cool but in reality they spend most of their time analysing water.
2) A complete stranger joined our group, courtesy of a spare ticket we had. Her brother had encouraged her to just turn up at the venue, see if there was someone selling a spare ticket and then find a random group to hang out with. We fulfilled both categories, she paid us the $40 for the ticket and we passed her a couple of beers and had the pleasure of her company all evening.

For the curious, both parties can be seen here

Del Lardo · 02-03-2009, 14:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garp

He's nothing special, really he isn't.

I'd never heard of him until January when I was in Vegas for work and my American collegues dragged me to a Jimmy Buffett restaurant telling me it was some of the best food ever accompanied by some really good music.

It really was nothing special. Despite getting hammered on Margaritas during the 90 minute wait for the table I could still tell that the food was average but I got drunk and ate for free so I wasn't too upset.

I think that maybe you need to be American to appreciate him.

Psymonkee · 03-03-2009, 00:55

I've only heard of him 'cos he's in Rock Band

02-03-2009, 13:00	#1
Garp Preparing more tumbleweed Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Hawaii Posts: 6,038	Jimmy Buffett Last night I had the pleasure of going to see Jimmy Buffett play live. Before I met Lana's father I had only vaguely heard of him before in odd Scrubs references by J.D. Her father and bro-in-law are huge fans. Lana and her sister are pretty good fans in no small part because it's the music of their childhood, courtesy of their father. Out here it seems he's rather huge. His fans are called "Parrot heads" and turn up to gigs wearing either grass skirts, dressed as pirates, wearing shark hats or parrot ones. The age range of fans spread anything from 8 - 108, or so it seems. It's kinda understandable why. Last night, Lana and I, along with her Dad, sister and bro-in-law went to see him playing at the Waikiki Shell here in Hawaii. He's nothing special, really he isn't. I wouldn't buy any of his albums expecting to be taken on a musical journey, or have my brains blown out by the amazing licks or whatever. He plays good ol' rock and roll, with hippie influences and a dose of laughs thrown in for good measure. He really does nothing special, and yet manages to succeed in creating a memorable musical experience. Strange how that works. I'd happily pay to attend more of his Gigs and I can't honestly tell you why If you get a chance I'd say he's worth a shot. One cool thing I didn't expect, Jake Shimabukuro, who is somewhat of a local celebrity and well known world wide as the "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" Ukulele player (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puSkP3uym5k) is a regular in the Jimmy Buffett band and was playing last night. Not too prominent an instrument when played with the entire band, but he did an amazing duet of that song with the Steel Drum player. I'm not a fan of steel drums it must be said, but last night was an exception to my general rule. The dude playing was mind blowingly awesome. Steel drums in my experience have always been loud and harsh sounding. The dude last night who hailed from Trinidad, was producing the most incredible range of sounds out of those drums, far beyond anything I've ever heard done with those drums before. In some kinda bizarre way he and Jake created a really memorable variation on the theme. http://www.flickr.com/photos/2897567...80467/sizes/l/ I was rather far away from the stage and my poor camera can only to a 6x zoom, but that's Jimmy centre stage with Jake to the right of him. A couple of cool random things from last night: 1) I met the forensics guy who was the principle consultant for the original CSI. Around 2/3rds of the first two series were based on his files. Interesting factoid: the equipment they use on CSI is actually all real. The lab could in theory be used as a full forensics investigation lab if necessary. Usually they just use shells of equipment, all the outer stuff, none of the inner. The background people in the labs are all full season extras who get trained to use all the equipment properly. What those extras are doing in the background often looks pretty cool but in reality they spend most of their time analysing water. 2) A complete stranger joined our group, courtesy of a spare ticket we had. Her brother had encouraged her to just turn up at the venue, see if there was someone selling a spare ticket and then find a random group to hang out with. We fulfilled both categories, she paid us the $40 for the ticket and we passed her a couple of beers and had the pleasure of her company all evening. For the curious, both parties can be seen here __________________ Mal: Define "interesting"? Wash: "Oh, God, oh, God, we're all gonna die"?

03-03-2009, 00:55	#3
Psymonkee A cat wearing a wet suit Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: St.Andrews Posts: 2,023	I've only heard of him 'cos he's in Rock Band __________________ Sonisphere FMC Code: 1k949178