Marcus King at the Masonic, October 11, 2022

Live Nation presents Marcus King; Neal Francis & Ashland Craft open
the California Masonic Memorial Temple Auditorium
1111 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94108 USA
7:00 PM, Tuesday, October 11, 2022

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[7:00 PM] {We miss the start of the show because I'm out circling for a legal parking spot}
[7:23 PM] {I walk into the performance hall just as Ashland is ending a tune}

1. [7:24 PM] I Smoke Weed
   [7:29 PM] {AC: come meet me at the merch table during setbreak; banter; singalong practice for the next tune}
2. [7:31 PM] Mile a Minute
   [7:36 PM] {hype from Dean Delray}
   [7:37 PM] {set break!}

• Ashland Craft: acoustic guitar, vox.

[7:49 PM] {lights down; introduction by Dean Delray}

1. [7:50 PM] Alameda Apartments
2. [7:56 PM] Problems
3. [8:00 PM] Prometheus
4. [8:08 PM] Changes, Pts. 1 & 2
5. [8:15 PM] Can't Stop the Rain
   [8:20 PM] {band introduction}
6. [8:20 PM] Sentimental Garbage
   [8:29 PM] {more hype from Dean Delray}
   [8:30 PM] {set break}

• Kellen Boersma: guitar, harmony vox;
• Neal Francis: Yamaha electric piano, Whammy Clavinet, vox;
• Collin O'Brien: drums, harmony vox;
• Mike Starr: bass, harmony vox.

1. [8:48 PM] {Dean out to do a bit of his stand-up routine}
   [8:58 PM] {DD: Marcus King up next!}

• Dean Delray: emcee, comedian.

[9:09 PM] {Dean Delray introduces Marcus King; James Brown's Get Right blasting from the PA for a couple minutes before the band starts playing}

1. [9:11 PM] It's Too Late
2. [9:15 PM] Trouble Man
3. [9:19 PM] Blood on the Tracks
4. [9:26 PM] Whisper
5. [9:31 PM] One Day She's Here
6. [9:38 PM] Aim High » [9:43 PM] (false ending) » Aim High resumes
   [9:51 PM] {MK mumbles introduction of the keyboard player; dead air; MK: we're gonna slow it down a little bit}
7. [9:52 PM] Guess Who?
   [9:59 PM] {MK mumble; dead air; keyboard and guitar noodling; MK: “Alright, we're just gettin' started baby”}
8. [10:00 PM] Pain
   [10:04 PM] {MK mumble; tune starts; someone else onstage makes comment of thanks}
9. [10:05 PM] Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues
10. [10:09 PM] Sweet Mariona
11. [10:12 PM] Fraudulent Waffle » [10:23 PM] (drum solo) » [10:26 PM] (add bass, then horns as FW jam continues) »
12. [10:29 PM] Take the Highway
    [10:37 PM] {MK: God Bless the Marshall Tucker Band}
13. [10:37 PM] Good and Gone
    [10:41 PM] {MK thanks for being so good to us; thanks to the opening bands}
14. [10:42 PM] Goodbye Carolina
    [10:46 PM] {MK: San Francisco, you're beautiful! We got one more for you…}
15. [10:47 PM] Lie Lie Lie
    [10:51 PM] {MK: We love you San Francisco; bows and waves; band off!}
    [10:52 PM] {encore break; plenty of hollering from the crowd}
    [10:53 PM] {the crowd cools down while roadies set up Neal Francis' electric piano}
    
    Encore
    [10:54 PM] {MK complains we're being too quiet! “Ya gotta act like you want it or ya ain't gonna get it!”}
    {joining MK and band onstage are AC: harmony vox; NF: electric piano; KB: guitar; CO'B: percussion; DD: harmony vox}
16. [10:55 PM] Delta Lady » [11:00 PM] false ending; MK: Thank you so much!; pause a few sec more applause, then blammo!! » [11:00 PM] Delta Lady (Reprise)
    [11:01 PM] {final applause}
    [11:02 PM] {show ends: lights up right away! PA up too! Go on, get outta here!}

• Stephen Campbell: bass, harmony vox;
• ? (Marcus mumbled intro) ?Matt Jennings: keyboards, Hammond B-3 organ, vox;
• Justin Johnson: trumpet, trombone, timbales, congas, percussion;
• Marcus King: guitar, vox;
• Jack Ryan: drums;
• Drew Smithers: guitar, slide guitar;
• Chris Spies: tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, flute, congas, percussion.

Aside from the usual travails (parking hassle, obnoxious audience members, crappy mix for the opening acts, aching bones from being on my feet for hours, etc), tonight was another fun one!

What could I do to make things better next time around? Let's start by double-checking show time! I'm reasonably certain that show time for this event was originally announced as 8 PM … 'cuz that's what was in my calendar. But when I looked at my e-ticket after dinner and saw that it said 7 PM, I knew we were in time trouble! Dang!

Managed to ace the Bay Bridge metering light mess by hewing to the far right Fastrak lane, but the traffic monster grabbed us just before Treasure Island, and it didn't let go until we hit the Fremont St exit. I was pretty sure as soon as that happened that we weren't gonna arrive on time. Gotta stay cool when you're stuck like that: ain't no use getting steamed up about things you can't change.

Passed a couple empty parking spots on my way up California street, hoping to score a primo spot right in front. Didn't happen this time, and we wasted at least ten minutes circling about fruitlessly in the maze of one-way streets. Happily, I didn't get stopped for any of the illegal turns I made (safely!), and we ended up finding an open loading zone spot just over 2 blocks east of the venue: score!!

Rushed on over, passed security (after a blink for them to decide that the metal pins on my flannel shirt weren't dangerous), and managed to hit the floor in time for the last two songs of Ashley Craft's opening set. Probably just as well: her twangy delivery and aw-shucks country demeanor wasn't really the sort of thing I wanted to hear tonight.

Ashley performed her set from stage left, and as I'd seen photos showing that Marcus would be set up on stage right, at set break we moved over towards the other side of the pit, finding a great spot behind our friend Kate on the rail. While this also turned out to be a pretty good spot for watching Neal Francis' set, it wasn't so great for listening: the folks around us were way too talkative for my liking. Coupled with the subpar mix usually given to openers, that made for a frustrating experience this set: I really liked what the band was laying down, but the environment made it hard to appreciate. By halfway through Neal's set I got so frustrated that I started edging outwards, hoping to get away from the distraction of the talkers by moving to be more inline with the stage right PA. Unfortunately, the folks up front there were talking too: I didn't find relief until I moved towards the still sparse area at the back of the pit. Should have tried that sooner!

As much as I appreciated the improved listening experience from that spot, I didn't really want to hang out there by myself, so after Neal's set I moved back to the rail to find that there must have been a small disturbance: Kate and crew were now about 6 feet closer to center. Hoping this was a good omen (away from the louder talkers of the previous set), I settled down to wait for the stage hands to make things ready for the headlining set from Marcus King.

Midway through the changeover, Dean Delray came back out to do about ten minutes of stand-up. Like most such acts, it was hit and miss stuff: with Dean slinging a line or two for an opening riff, then adjusting his follow-up based on crowd response. I thought a few of his bits were kinda cringey, but that's not unusual: lots of comedy has a mean put-down edge. Yet another reason why I don't pay much attention to that form of entertainment! To his credit, Dean was quick to side-step to other topics when realized that he'd dropped a turd, and his tweener set was short enough to keep me from being bored with it.

I was a little surprised that we had to wait another ten minutes for Marcus to start after Dean's rap – shouldn't the band have been ready to launch? Maybe they were palling around, not thinking about the Masonic's fairly early 11 PM curfew.

Marcus' set was quite good. A teensy bit of variety, sampling from his variously flavored albums, but mostly stomping, shredding, pummeling, heavy-ass southern rock. Good when it's what you want to hear. Tiresome if you ain't in the mood! I think my favorite of the night was the slow, quiet, Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues – it must have made an impression by contrast against the guitar-wanking sludge of the rest of the set.

I noticed that they dropped a few tunes from the printed setlist – probably an accommodation for that curfew – and also because some of tonight's tunes were really stretched out: 17-18 minutes for Fraudulent Waffle? Yeah, that's a bit more than the five minute album version!

Given that I'd peeked at setlists from earlier shows on tour, I expected the Delta Lady encore, and enjoyed it nevertheless. Long live Leon Russell! I bet they coulda stretched that one out for ten minutes or more, what with almost everyone up on stage from the show billing, but here again we got bit by the curfew: false ending at 11:00 PM on the dot (gotta give a nod to the stage manager to avoid getting fined!), then a final minute's rave-up to send the crowd home. I know I was buzzin'!

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2022 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2022 event list! ☸ On to the next event!