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| The Jeff Healey Band rolled into the
House Of Blues for a short one hour and twenty five
minute set. The crowd really got into the show however
and it was an excellent show even if it was short. Jeff
Healey, who is blind, is from Canada and plays the guitar
in a very unusual way. The guitar sits on his lap most of
the time and he plays it much as a piano player would.
Fingering the notes and chords from the top, this guy
plays better than most guitarists who can see and he is
definitely not handicapped when it comes to playing the
guitar. He opened a blistering set with "My Little
Girl" from his first CD, "See The Light"
and continued to play selections from his four CD's
finishing up with "While My Guitar Gently
Weeps" for the encore. He was joined by long time band mates Joe Rockman (Bass) and Tom Stephen (Drums) and
Phil Sayce (guitar) who also smoked on the guitar. Jeff seemed to be in good spirits, cracking jokes about the smoke, "the smoke is so thick in here, I can't see a thing". It was pretty smoky in the HOB that night as there were some pretty heavy smokers at the front of the stage. One of the highlights of the evening was his version of "Roadhouse Blues" where the audience joined in with the song. The only thing I did not like about Jeff Healey's set was when he smashed a guitar at the end of his set. It was a cheap Fender, but it WAS a playable guitar. I strongly believe in that song that came out a few years back by John Hyatt called "Perfectly Good Guitar" with the line "There oughta be a law with no bail, smash a guitar and you go to jail". Smashing the guitar was not done for any reason except to entertain the crowd and to me that's a pretty poor reason. Photos for the evening are not available thanks to our local Gay Pride and Operation Rescue activities. To quote "The Orlando Sentinel" from June 6, 1998: "Fearing an ugly incident, Disney is banning journalists from the Magic Kingdom today and has threatened to escort them out of they're caught sneaking in, especially those with TV cameras. Among the networks denied access were CNN and ABC, which is owned by Disney." No photo passes were given out the whole weekend. The organizations that caused the blackout have dropped EVEN LOWER on my opinion scale. Overall I give Jeff Healey a 10, and the screaming broad next to my wife gets a -10.
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