John Popper with Brothers Keeper - Crested Butte Center for the Arts, Crested Butte, CO - January 18, 2015

[band is from Vail] Rockboy kicked me out &, in my determination to keep busy, I actually invited ElPrimoHaole to this show. ElPrimoHaole had given me some Brothers Keeper material because he’d seen them open for Ween – I thought one of the Ween ‘brothers’ was in the band – found out on the drive over that nope. ElPrimoHaole was thrilled and said he’d asked Rockboy but Rockboy had said he hates John Popper – I told ElPrimoHaole I didn’t know who John Popper was – ElPrimoHaole, in a rare moment of nastiness, said that Rockboy sure dislikes a lot of music for someone who claims to love music – things beign what they were, I agreed – then I looked John Popper up – Blues Travelers, another fucking jam band – Rockboy 1 ElPrimoHaole 0. I spent the whole show crafting a review that would be honest but not kill ElPrimoHaole – I can’t do it. It was the sort of band you’d see at a county fair – a bunch of old guys who’ve loved music their whole lives and do some sort of bland amalgam of rock n roll now. I will give them credit for not being a jam band. They were some mix of classic rock and blues rock blah blah. ElPrimoHaole & I both liked it best when the bass guitarist sang – nice voice & harder stuff – maybe more classic rock. The drummer was very innocent & cute & did some pop rock numbers. (They alternated singing, seemingly doing songs they had written.) The lead guitarist/vocalist & the other guitarist/vocalist were your standard old rockers – one with a ponytail and some skinnyish jeans and probably into chakras, the other with spiky hair & an animated face & ‘wild’ plum colored pants. John Popper was actually an odd fit for these guys – not sure how he’s ended up where he has – his harmonica playing was actually astounding – his voice was good too – both sounded so Blues Travelers – he was the band. He threw like ten harmonicas into the crowd as the show ended. He’s huge but apparently had lost around 100 pounds. They ended with a Led Zeppelin cover and The Band’s “The Weight” – best part of the show. I also liked when they harmonized. They worked hard, the crowd loved it, ElPrimoHaole loved it – I steamed.