Dave Mason's "Alone Together Again" tour stopped at Olympia's Capitol Theater on September 27th and was a testimony to the power of artists who keep their playing and singing intact. The two-hour performance rang with skill and focus, where Mason performed the key tracks on 1970's Alone Together album and other songs from his recorded career, plus material dating from his tenure in Traffic, such as "Dear Mr. Fantasy" and "Feelin' Alright." But wait, there's more: two pieces were from the catalog of "Traffic A.D.--after Dave," as he noted.
Mason was backed by Johnne Sambataro on rhythm guitar, Tony Patler on keyboards and Alvino Benett on drums, who all have a vast session history and were a terrific ensemble. Sambataro sang a sweet version of Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home" and Patler added another Traffic A.D. song, "Rock'n'Roll Stew," brief diversions from the set that focused on Mason's songwriting and guitar work. His voice is still a strong, recognizable force, barely different than it was fifty years ago.
While I'm unsure where the bass sound came from, there was an audible bottom to the sound--the only problem with the mix was that the snare drum was often piercing rather than a solid, low-end crack.
A low-tech but enjoyable backdrop of photo stills and video added another element to the gig, showing Mason with his best known band, plus Delaney & Bonnie, Jimi Hendrix, Cass Elliot (they collaborated on an album in 1971) and more. The photo of Mason curled up with a sitar, which he said was a gift from George Harrison, brought laughter when he offered, "I don't play it anymore--for one thing, I can no longer sit in that position."
There was also a still of his early band (perhaps I've gone to the wrong sites--couldn't find the group's moniker), which played instrumentals, like so many pre-Beatles rock groups when the Shadows were the U.K.'s most successful act. With that, Mason launched into a perfect version of "Apache," a hit for the Shadows and then for Jorgen Ingmann in 1960.
While Mason called his '70s Adult Contemporary hit, Jim Krueger's "We Just Disagree," "my sensitive bastard song," the show basically was ebb and flow, packed with rock dynamics, and plenty of my Alone Together favorites, such as "Shouldn't Have Took More Than You Gave," "Look at You, Look at Me" and "World In Changes." Interestingly, he played "The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" as a crunching, slow blues, only shifting to the familiar keyboard riff near the end.
His sole encore was "All Along the Watchtower"--maybe you've forgotten (as I did) that Mason played acoustic guitar on Hendrix's Electric Ladyland masterpiece version. And while he listed several of his most admired musician friends in the business (Hendrix, Harrison, Delaney & Bonnie, Elliot, Joe Cocker), he did not mention Steve Winwood's name even once over the course of a memorable evening.