Pic of the Day 02.27.09

Back when music was good and the electric guitar was God, BB King was one of the pioneering apostles of Blues Rock. One of the first bluesmen to exclusively use an electric guitar, King (and Muddy Waters) established the blueprint for the birthing of a new musical movement -- Rock 'n' Roll.

This past Tuesday, I had the pleasure of seeing King and Blues staple Buddy Guy perform at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey (it angers me just to write those two words). Both men, who are getting into their years -- King is 83 and Guy is 74 -- still burn with a desire to play live. As they piece together goose-bump inducing riffs, they feed off the crowd's energy and their bodies become a medium for the guitar currents - as evidenced by the face Mr. King is making in this photo.

Mixing in story and a mini-song about Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis, it's clear that their age affects their performance, especially in King's case -- for most of his songs, he didn't play guitar until the end, where he would piece together 15 to 30 seconds of some of the most gorgeous sounds my ears have ever heard.

And while King was telling his story, there was a story developing just behind me. As I took this picture, two drunk women were getting ready to throw down with a man who had just told them to "Shut the fuck up." The women were making noise at inopportune times -- when the music was quiet, or the musicians were talking -- and the man had gotten fed up. As you would expect, a shouting match ensued, and security came to forcibly eject the ladies from the theater. But here's where it gets interesting. One of the women left without much hassle, but the other one -- who incidentally had a walker, but couldn't have been over 55 -- started hitting the security detail. As she was finally pushed/guided into the aisle, she turned to take a menacing swing at the guard, lost her balance and fell. Then, laying on the ground, unable to get up, she pissed herself.