Out On The Town

There are many music venues in the St. Louis area I haven't been to before. After last night, I can cross BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups off the list.

According to their Website, the building that houses BBs was originally constructed in the mid 1800's. A three-story addition was added at the turn of the century. Since then, the location has been used as a home, boarding house, reception hall, mercantile, millinery, transient hotel, bar, diner, and a House of Ill Repute. The club has won the Riverfront Times award for Best Blues Club multiple times. In addition to being a great place to hear live music, BB's is also known for their food; they received the Best of Food Network in 2005.

Tonight's musical act was Harper. Tony got us added to the guest list, and I was excited to go. However, the band didn't start playing till 9:30PM. Some nights I'm heading to bed by then! An afternoon nap and a large cup of coffee after dinner took care of that, and we headed out the door about 8:00 to drive downtown.

It wasn't hard to find a place to park on a Wednesday night. Since we arrived early for the show, only half the tables were taken, and we had our choice of seats. We had long since eaten dinner, but had to sample some of BBs cuisine. Our waiter pointed out some of his favorites, and we decided to split a catfish po-boy. The kitchen was nice enough to divide it up and serve it on two plates; each plate had the full compliment of lettuce, tomato, tartar sauce, and angry hushpuppies (with jalapenos and onions). It was great!

After our snack we sat back and waited for the music to start. It was worth the wait! Harper is from Australia, although he now lives in the States, and writes many of his songs. His singing was smooth and soulful. He's an amazing harmonica player, and also incorporated a didgeridoo (in honor of his Australian indigenous culture) into many of the songs. The music was a combination of rock, blues, soul, and world music.

Although the band was playing till 1:00, we couldn't make it that long. Partway though the second set I started yawning, so we settled up our tab and left. However, I suspect it won't be the last time I'm at BBs.