April 23, 2004

Review by Russ Dulaney

Grant Street Dance Hall was filled with excited fans, locals, family and friends by 11 pm Friday night. As usual, the band lit the fuse with Z. Rider, a song with all the subtlety of an obnoxious neighbor firing up his Electra Glide outside your bedroom window at 4 am. (Z. Rider is a great opener at summer festivals; you can watch the first-timers straining to see if there are really only three guys on stage making all that music. Some of them don't close their mouths until halfway through the set.)

The Lafayette crowd seemed to take real pride in South of I-10's local flavor, and the song's description of the music and life of South Louisiana seemed much richer to us north of I-10 visitors when heard in Sonny's hometown.

Native Stepson stoked the fire once again, Kenny's locomotive drums churning along as Sonny and the crowd burned off the steam.

David Ranson's deep, rumbling bass shuffle set the stage for Broken Hearted Road. Sonny wailed and moaned until Dave's bass solo unleashed a tidal wave of slide guitar. The crowd roared its appreciation, and Sonny answered with another wave, and another.

Hell at Home, the raucous, stomping, crowd-pleasing tale of domestic discord. Jason kept the freshly-tuned guitars coming, and Sonny, Dave and Kenny kept the house rocking. Nobody took a song off, even the audience seemed determined to get every ounce of energy and emotion from each song. Business at the bar was slow and the bathrooms stayed empty.

Fallin For You was so welcome because it hasn't been played often during the last year.

USS Zydecoldsmobile had the audience in a road trip party mood.

Wind in Denver proved to be a gale-force blues rocker (Think ZZ Top vs. Jose Cuervo in a southwest Texas roadhouse brawl.) Wind hasn't been released on CD before, so it will be a special treat when this live version is available.

The show closed with Pedal 2 the Metal, a tour-de-force instrumental bookend to the opening Z. Rider. Pedal showcases Sonny's unparalled ability to play lead to his own rhythm guitar. He even did a one-man two-guitar duel, deftly alternating sound, voice and personality phrase by phrase as he challenged and responded.

Of course, everyone wanted more. After several minutes of stomping and shouting (the Grant Street regulars were actually quite skilled at beating the Dance Hall's wood plank floors with their stools), Kenny emerged from the dressing room to kick off the voodoo drumbeat of Congo Square.

Sonny and his band keep a busy, sometimes grueling tour schedule. But for these two nights, at least, they got to go home to their own beds. Their fans went back to the motel rooms. And everyone left satisfied.

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the above photos taken by Russ Dulaney


the above photo taken by Genny

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