Still on my Bronson high

Enjoying the last few hours of reflecting on the weekend. 🙂

Bronson on Friday night - Photo by Me

Had to miss two events yesterday because I’m a klutz (I will live!) but still got to see Bronson on Friday.  He and his band were entertaining as usual and did many songs we hadn’t heard them do live before, including a cover of James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” and Bronson’s original song “Painted it All Yellow” (the song he sang on the last entry I posted).  Highlights of the night (for me) were getting to hang with Cindy, KellyO and Janine all night (CBS Scene? Meh. Bar Louie’s? I almost didn’t want to leave there to go to the show.), getting to chat up Elan Trotman for a few minutes after the show, and, of course, getting to meet Bronson again at another meet and greet he did (also after the show).

“Meet and Greet” is a bit generous.  From a lot of reports I’ve heard, many people felt rushed through the line.  Buy a shirt or cd (which we did – shirt – before the show), have him sign it/maybe pose for a picture and get lost.  But, see, we don’t roll that way. I went first, asked Bronson the name of the song he wrote (he didn’t mention it in his intro), told him how much I liked it…gabbed a minute or two and then asked him if he’d pose for a picture.  This all came after I handed him my t-shirt (designed by him) inside out (hey, they were promoting it as “REVERSIBLE!”) and he remarked, “It’s inside out.”.  I smiled and told him I knew it was inside out and that I wanted him to sign the side with less printing on it.  He shrugged and began to sign when the woman accompanying him barked at him, “Wait, it’s inside out!!”.  Bronson responded with a smile and “She knows.” and began signing again.   Then the guy behind him (security?) taps his shoulder and says “It’s inside out” to which I replied, “I KNOW! It’s reversible, right?”  Making Bronson laugh and then ask me where he should sign it.  We then took a picture and I got to thank him again for the great show and coming out to meet the fans after.  He was, as ever, quite nice and gracious to the fans.

More Bronson on Friday taken by me!

KellyO, Cindy and Janine all went through the line and got autographs and I took each of their photos with Bronson.  By force of habit, I suppose, I thanked him after each photo and as I was leaving, thanked him again.  He laughed and thanked me for being so nice.  So I’ve got that going for me.

If you don’t like Bronson or the type of music he plays, this evening wouldn’t be for you.  But he puts on a really good show (I got the chance to ask Elan if HE did all of Bronson’s arrangements, as most of the covers he does sound almost nothing like the originals, and he told me he does and that “It’s a lot of hard work”.)  and, it might not seem it to folks who don’t go see them, but Bronson and Elan take this stuff really seriously.

Bronson didn’t say so, but I’ve heard stories that the original song he wrote was about a friend of his who passed away.  I give him a lot of credit for finally having the courage to sing one of his own songs in public, but he gets a little more if that song happens to be about something so tragic and personal to him.

(One thing I forgot to note: Bronson sang “Boston” again. Used the same words too. Then told us that if anyone from the media asked, it was some guy in his crew who looked like he could be Bronson’s brother who sang it. It, as you would expect, went over huge again!)

So I’ll bask in the glow one last day and listen to some more Bronson while watching the snow fall.  There are worse ways to spend a Sunday.

The video below is one of two I took Friday night.  This one is Bronson singing “Fire and Rain”.  YouTube distorted the vid a little, but it still came out not too shabby.  Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVimKNSwF-A&hl=en&fs=1]