Leon Redbone at the Bing Crosby Theater on Friday, April 22nd
As the lights slowly dropped at 8pm, so did the chatter in the cozy Bing Crosby Theater. Everyone was patiently awaiting Leon Redbone to take the stage. In the dark theater on stage left sat Paul Asaro with his piano. Paul started to perform a little ragtime diddy and halfway through the number, out walks Leon Redbone in a suit, Panama Hat, dark sunglasses, with his cane whistling along to the song. It was one of the classiest entrances I have ever seen. The audience went wild after the song, everyone around me was so excited to see Leon they all had sparkles in their eyes and ear to ear grins. Not only was the audience just in complete heaven but they were so respectful and it was so quite in the room you could hear every tap of Leon’s foot on stage. Therefore it was almost impossible to not tap your feet along with him during every song.
After his opening entrance the first thing Leon said was “…that was the sing along number of the evening,” there were chuckles echoing from the top of the balcony down to the orchestra seating. In between a lot of songs Leon Redbone had the audience laughing, he is a very comic man. Another one of his little jokes throughout the night was that all of the songs sound the same. He even poked fun of the Davenport. It was entertaining to watch him on stage too. Paul Asaro played a number for us and he picked a fast fun piece; Leon sitting in his chair was moving his fingers and was acting like Paul was a showoff for playing so fast and well. Paul Asaro is an extremely talented piano player; it was very cool that we got to see him play by himself and with Leon.
Leon Redbone was having fun tonight at the Bing Crosby Theater. He played a number of songs and even some “… sing along numbers in a depressing mode…” as he joked. It was chilling to sit up in the very back of the Bing Crosby Theater and still hear every movement on stage. It was timeless. He can play his guitar extremely well and the music is almost impossible not to move your head and feet too. He even made a device that held his harmonica for him by standing it on his guitar. As much as I loved his guitar playing his blues vocals were lovely and very musically charming. Some of the songs that I completely adored were “Walking Stick,” “I Ain’t Got Nobody,” and every single time he whistled. He can do some serious whistling!
From Leon’s stage set up (which appeared as he was playing a show for us from his living room; next to his chair was a side coffee table and a lamp), to the jokes, to the music, down to the feet taping… the evening was a perfect ten. Leon and Paul warmed up the Bing Crosby Theater and had every single person charmed.
Photos courtesy of Matt Auclair.
