As I said in Part 1, Stas and I were basically on top of Jeff Kazee as you can see from this picture.When he was playing on the Bon Jovi HAND tour, you really couldn't hear his particular brand of genius all that much, but in the Jukes setting his keyboard prowess is completely on display. And what a display it was the other night!
First off, the guy is extremely amusing - playing backwards (literally! standing with his back to the keys and playing away), "surfing" on top of the railing during "On the Beach" (one of their fun party songs) and "quoting" other songs during his solos. That last point is a personal favorite of mine and always makes me laugh - Jeff was definitely in a "Christmas in July" mood as he kept interspersing holiday songs in different places. Secondly, he just makes sure everyone around him is having a good time.
To say that when you're at a Jukes show, everybody gets really comfortable would be an understatement. LOL (yes, those are Jeff's feet) ... But, that's why I love to go see them. Its a fun atmosphere. Jukesfans aren't psycho (sorry, but y'all know there are some "interesting" Jovifans out there...) And, you're guaranteed to have a lot of laughs because Southside doesn't seem to have a filter between his brain and his mouth while on stage ... so there are ALWAYS some hysterically funny moments.
Oh, and before I forget ... for those who were at the Starland Mastercard Roots of Rock soundcheck ... oh I mean the fan club show (sorry, was that mean? LOL - just kidding Jon we had a FANTABULOUS time!) ... you may recognize bass player John Conte. He can REALLY groove! (and does a pretty good robotic dance impression, too!)
In any case, once again I can blame Jon Bon Jovi for making me lose sleep...
because Jon was the one who introduced me to Southside ...
see where I'm going here? LOL
(see previous "blame Jon" post)
But, man, what a great time!
P.S. Going thru YouTube looking for a good clip of "Walk Away Renee" (since I mentioned it in my last post), take a look at what I found!
P.S. All Jukes pictures courtesy of KTFCoyote!
