Fantastic Friends Show @ The Ogden 09Oct23

Sammy Rae & The Friends were outstanding at the Ogden Theater tonight. Ogden's sound was decent, the mix was good, the crowd was excited, and Samantha Bowers (aka Sammy Rae) sounded great, as did her entire band. The show was packed; it was so with many who could sing all the songs ~ me included. Sure I was 4X the average age of attendees and stood in a 3 city block long line to enter but yeah, it was worth it.

I reviewed her material before in Music Appreciation HERE, and she sang most of her latest album plus a new song, "Luck Of The Drill (?)," as well as some older ones during the 105min set. The entire band's vibes and songs are so upbeat and inclusive it is infectious. She played keys a couple of times, which is normal, but she also played banjo on one finale and a guitar (for the 1st time on tour, or that's what she said) one time. She often prompted the crowd for hands, waves, and choruses and mostly folks obliged ~ not quite my thing but I sang along. They dubbed the extensive tour "The Camp" Tour as there isn't any specific material release associated with it and "Camp" allows them to play around with whatever they like ~ on a couple of songs everybody changed instruments and jumped out of their comfort zones. While pretty cool, these were not the best tunes.

I only made one video from the show - the 2nd song of the set was "Follow Me Like The Moon."

The opening act was Fleece, a Montreal alternative band. They were good. Matt, the main guy on keys & lead, and Megan were both strong singers.

Update 11Oct23... I found evidence today that the Ogden concert was not at all the first time on tour that Samantha played guitar live in front of an audience. I watched earlier examples this year on the Camp Tour of her playing guitar on stage. I don't understand why she would say it was the first time (maybe she was referencing the Camp Tour itself but it did not seem like it), but she absolutely did. Maybe I'm sensitive because I just read a good New Yorker article on Ariely & Gino, major social behaviorists, who falsified data for their study on deceit. More lies are told by those who lie, than others. I fear I need to watch this one carefully... it is so minor, why do it?