Marcia Ball, who played the first half of this show, was fantastic! Great music, great sound, great seats, and she was worth the price of admission all by herself. Her band looked happy, as if they were having a good time making great music for an audience that was loving it. Imagine that!
Tommy Castro is a good blues man and I love his music. But I won't be seeing him live again, and in fact we walked out halfway through his set. The major problem was terrible sound balance. The bass and drums buried the vocals, and the volume level was painful. I played in rock bands for many decades, so I'm not one to complain about loud music. As we were walking out I noticed that even in the top seats, the bass was far too loud. The venue acoustics are just fine. Marcia Ball was on stage with 4 sidemen (i.e. 5-piece band total) and the sound was perfect. It isn't the venue.
Tommy, listen to me... You're a great player but you're screwing yourself here. You need sound guys who can hear, and aren't too lazy to walk the venue and make adjustments. The Painkillers are excellent players, but they look like they're not having any fun. You might wanna find some sidemen who actually enjoy performing. Ya know?