Carefully-paced is the byword for the BB King show these days: he's 73, a little frail and vocally not as powerful as he once was. But nobody can say he's lost the knack for playing an audience or playing guitar. The start of the show was uncannily similar to the concert scene in The Blues Brothers - seven-piece band onstage in cabaret attire, grooving their way through lengthy instrumentals, cheesy fellow cheer-leading in anticipation of the main attraction.
Ten minutes or so later the main attraction finally arrives, although the choice of Let The Good Times Roll - one of his signature tunes certainly, but too fast for his voice to succeed these days - did not assuage one's doubts. Happily, the rest of the more mid to slow-tempo 90-minute set did. Holding court from a seated position, the thrill has not yet gone for that unique B.B. King guitar - the tone, the vibrato, the squeals and flurries. Everything about his playing that made his reputation is present, correct and still offering a good deal more than mere proof of identity. Giving his sidemen plenty of room for solo spots and establishing instant rapport with the near-capacity crowd, there was little in his repertoire that hasn't been there for 20 years - though I'll Survive from the recent BB On The Bayou was one surprise - but he still plays around with arrangements, making even The Thrill Has Gone sound fresh.
