Redwood City Music on the Square 2014 presents the PAL Blues Festival Kickoff Party featuring Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers
2014-07-25
Courthouse Square
2250 Broadway, Redwood City, CA
6:00 PM, Friday, July 25, 2014

Back to the previous event ☸ Back to the 2014 yearbox ☸ Back to the 2014 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[6:08 PM announcements]

1. [6:10 PM] ? (instrumental)
2. [6:15 PM] Tend to Your Business
3. [6:21 PM] Emergency Situation
4. [6:28 PM] Queen Bee
5. [6:33 PM, all off but DK, HP] Saturday Night Boogie
6. [6:39 PM, all back] Rockin' Robin
7. [6:42 PM] the Clock
8. [6:46 PM, -RP] Ya Ya (HC)
9. [6:51 PM, +RP] Milk and Water
10. [6:55 PM] I Don't Play, I'll Be Your Man Some Day (6:57 RP hands his harp to AJ; 7:00 RP 2nd harp on vocal mic)
    [set ends 7:01 PM]

[6:30 PM lights down, announcements]

1. [7:14 PM] ? (instrumental)
2. [7:21 PM] Sleeping in the Ground
3. [7:25 PM] Baby Please Don't Go
4. [7:32 PM, -RP] So Many Roads (HC) (crackle in PA from ?bad cable on keys?)
5. [7:41 PM, +RP] Love to Spare
6. [7:44 PM] Hard Workin' Boogie »
7. [7:53 PM] Southern Lady
   [show ends 8:08 PM with announcements, no encore]

Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers

• Henry Carvajal: guitar;
• Norm Gonzales: contrabass;
• David Kida: drums;
• Honey Piazza: piano;
• Rod Piazza: harmonica, vox;
• with special guest -
• Andy Just: harmonica.

Walk up just as pre-show announcements are getting underway. 98 F in the shade, and the plaza in front of the stage is fully lit by the sun … dang, hope the set turns out as scorching as today's weather! After a minute or two, it's obvious that the sound off-sides in the shade is unacceptable, so I connvince myself that its not all that hot, then amble over into the sunlit center, eventually skoodling into a spot dead center, about 20' back from the stage. Full sun. Full blast from both the PA stacks and the amps onstage. This is the place! Surprisingly, the scene up front is remarkably mellow througvhout the first set – either the crowd came late, or they were just afraid of the heat.

Rod calls for a break after an hour, and I take advantage of the chance to jog back to the car for my camera, then over to the beer tent for a fine pilsner. Thank God for cold beer on hot days! I dec,ide to sip my beer in the shade of the street vendors tents, but get caught by surprise when the band starts up again without a warning shout or hullo from the emcee. Dang! I hate it when that happens!

Anyways, the center of courthouse plaza has filled up quite a bit since the first set, and there are now lots of folks dancing, as well as anchors like myself pinned to particular listening spots. A couple swirling by knocks into me and sends the last third of my beer flying without so much as a 'sorry“ – and it's small consolation to earn the empathy of folks around me who watched the beer foul occur. Would have made me happier to get a refill instead, but I can understand if no one felt that generous.

The band is a bit more amped up this set, no doubt bouyed by the positive feedback from the crowd. Towards the end of the show, Rod does his wireless thing out in the crowd, leading me to the inevitable dilemma: watch the star or watch the band? I waffle, and do a little bit of both. I'm surprised when they cut things off short of an hour, but who knows, maybe they think they're being generous, playing past an 8 PM curfew.

Once it's clear that we won't be getting an encore, I grab my stuff and skedaddle for the car, hoping to beat the inevitable rush of cars about to clog the downtown streets. Fortunately, I seemed to set myself up for a quick exit, and except for a few pauses to accomodate pedestrian traffic, I'm soon on my way up the peninsula to try and catch Cryin' Shame at the recently expanded Devil's Canyon Brewing Company.

It's just a short drive from downtown Redwood City – no more than a few miles – but sadly my schedule is out of sync, and I walk in to find that the late act, an up-and-coming country singer, Erica Sunshine, is getting ready to begin her set. Dang! Ambling over to the bar, I find Stacey Erdman (one of the principals of Cryin' Shame) waiting for a refill, and generously, she offers me a beer – better use up all the tickets she gets for performing by sharing than to drink hard and then attempt the long drive up into the wilds of La Honda! I am more than happy to oblige, and proceed to enjoy a hearty Full Boar Scottish Ale. Erika begins her set playing middle-of-the-road, kinda twangy but not too hick tunes. Her group – drums, bass, and a tree-sized dude playing the first electric flying-V violin I've ever seen – is competent, but her sound tends away from rock and too far into that sensitive girl niche for my taste. It's kinda fun watching toddlers shake and shimmy to an uninspired Tom Petty cover, but after a couple tunes, I decide it's not the sound I want to listen to right now, so I amble outside to check out the scene with the food trucks.

The high fog cover has brought a welcome chill to the air. Nothing so cool as to require a coat or jacket, and a welcome relief after the heat of the day. After surveying the options, I settle on a traditional choice, a $2 carne asada taco, piled high with shredded cabbage and salsa fresca, topped off with few crumbles of dry queso and a healthy squirt of green jalapeño salsa. Yum! I have just enough ale to wash down fhis creation, and finish both with an increasingly happy tummy and mouth roast-toasting in hot spicy afterburn. Yum yum yum yum yum!

As I eat my taco, I share a table with a group of folks who happen to be visiting from Pennsylvania. The dad in the group is roughly my age, and we spend awhile chatting about this, that and the other thing: beer, music, places to visit along the west coast, and so on. A good example why it's fun hanging out at places like Devil's Canyon … good food, great beer, live music, good company … what more could you expect?

Back to the previous event ☸ Back to the 2014 yearbox ☸ Back to the 2014 event list! ☸ On to the next event!