My wife and I had an awesome time last night catching Spyro at Yoshi's in Oakland ( 8PM show) .. After spending over 2 hours in traffic driving up from San Jose and being almost 45 minutes late for our dinner reservation -- the experience at Yoshi's more than made up for it. Had a great meal, perhaps a little rushed but ended up being seated at a table front row and center, about 4 feet from Jay -- was hearing his soprano very naturally. Wished they allowed pictures.

They had a new drummer sitting in, Lee Pearson who had only played with them for the first time at the sound check. You would have never known it -- he knew the material very well, followed the dynamics perfectly and is an awesome showman -- judging from the smiles and looks of the band members, I think they agree - especially during his extended solo in Cashaca. After the show I told both Scott and Tom - if this was an audition, he has my vote.

Setlist:
Caribe
Samba for two
Medley: Shaker Song, Catching the Sun, Morning Dance
De La Luz
Dancing on Table Mountain
Cashaca
Falling Walls
Breakfast at Igor's

Highlights from my perspective:
De La Luz ( Julio and Jay were smokin hot)
Dancing on Table Mountain -- Scott BLEW OUR MIND -- he played the most sic bass lead and solo (My wife is in love ) and Tom's retro rhodes-like solo
Cashaca - Lee's solo was a special treat with a whole section playing with a stick balanced on his head and then playing his set with just his hands.

Spyro is playing as funky as ever .. still one of the best fusion bands out there.
Cheers!

Check this guy out!!! He's great and will fit the band very well!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUh7NT1JrRg

Check out this one to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkoN1mr_mRk&feature=related

He did a solo at the show that had a lot of this technique -- you should have seen the faces of the rest of the band during the solo too.

A great showman -- the sticks behind the back .. and more .. a treat watch,

Like I told Scott and Tom after the show - he has my vote!

You can tell he comes from the church scene. He's really good though. Remains to be seen if he can contain himself and 'fit' in on a regular basis. My experience playing with Church cats have been frustrating to say the least.

Having said that....here's another vid. Dude is really good!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q79BECxbN6Y

Let's see if he get's invited back for the Jan shows. He did 4 shows at Yoshi's and 1 in Bend .. I was at the first one at Yoshi's.. be nice to hear how the other shows went. He followed Scott and Julio's queues very well .. certainly looked like he was having fun and confident too. I was impressed.

I just came across an article saying that Bonny had to take a leave of absence at the end of November due to health reasons. I hope he is doing OK.

Peter