We All Have Wings

I went to see the undisputed king of the blues at Cal State San Bernardino on Thursday night. I will be completely honest and say I know very little about Mr. King's music, what I do know is he is one of the most influential guitar players of all time and I love what he did with U2 on "When Love Comes to Town."

He actually did include a bit of "When Love Comes to Town" during his two-hour set on Thursday (that's right, two hours, and, yes, he is 84 years old). He also told stories about his life in Mississippi, played up to the women in the audience (we're all angels without wings, according to Mr. King) and let Lucille do her thing. His orchestra is amazing and helps Mr. King put on a fun and classy show that reminded me of what going to big band shows must have been like in the '40s and '50s when everyone was dressed to the nines (everyone in his band was in a tuxedo and all of his support staff wore suits). I was really surprised no one in the audience was dancing, because the music being played made me want to put on some amazing strappy shoes, curl my hair just right and wear the greatest dress with the most twirly skirt and dance the night away.

A year or two ago, John Mayer wrote on one of his many blogs that if given the chance to see Ray Charles perform live today, we'd all go, but we do still have that chance with BB King and need to take it. I'm so glad I did.

Saturday night, I did my best homage to Madonna circa 1984 with a giant bow tied in my hugely curly hair, flippy skirt, cut-off fishnets, fingerless gloves and scrunched socks to check out my friends in The Joshua Tree, the best U2 tribute band around. The band played Save New Wave II at the House of Blues with Blasphemous Rumours, a Depeche Mode tribute band, The Cured, a Cure tribute band, and INXS-ive, an INXS tribute band (who's keyboard player/background vocalist was on a few episodes of "Gilmore Girls," how cool is that?).

Joshua Tree always puts on great shows and delivered again on Saturday with its take on U2's famous Red Rocks concert from 1983. If you are at all a fan of U2, go check out Joshua Tree, you will not be disappointed.

The treat of the evening was INXS-ive. I love INXS so much but only got to see the band live once in 1997, just a few months before lead singer extraordinaire Michael Hutchence died. To be in a room with other people singing and dancing to the band's music was so much, but that INXS-ive did a really good job bringing the band's music to life made it all the more better. Saturday also marked the 12th anniversary of Michael's death and when the band played "Never Tear Us Apart" in his memory, the room went nuts. It was a great tribute to a great artist.