Yes... a rare weekday night out....! We ventured to Aurora for a night out with AA and Bill. First we filled out bellies with incredible Thai at Thai Villa. Gingle Beef. (Ginger beef is just wow...) Yellow Curry (it had another name but, it isn't listed on their online menu) Basil Beef (a bit underwhelming) and Curry Rice Vermicelli (Dry but delicious)... Yum! I miss having Thai locally.
The evening headliner was Gordie Johnson at Harmony Hall. I wasn't really familiar with Gordie, sure I know a bunch of Big Sugar material... but that isn't what he played (understandably since he was solo)... bdot is a big Gordie fan. But first, the venue... What a curious little gem. It's a very small venue, maybe 100-150 in the gig room upstairs... there is also a chill space downstairs which is full of cool music art and places to lounge. Venues don't seem to last long, so I hope this one makes it... I would certainly return for the right artist. But wow... was it ever HOT... Holy shit. Once the venue was full I felt I stepped into an oven. My only complaint about the venue would be the very poor air circulation, it felt a sauna in there. I thought I was having some sort of medical event standing there sweating my shirt through. Yes, gross.
Gordie was 30m late... Now if I was sitting in a cool room I wouldn't care. But I was standing in a room baking, so it become annoying...The crowd was mostly 50+ so I'm sure many people were feeling the same. Anyway... he eventually started and hit with some classic Blues songs. I don't mind some Blues... but 5 Blues songs in a row, that are long and frankly kinda similar got me wondering about the setlist. I think some more variety would have been nice. That said, Gordie was impressive. Boy, can he sing. He is very well suited to the Blues and his guitar style accompanied it wonderfully. He's a solid performer. There was the odd technical glitch but he perceived. A fun night out for sure.