My family alone the tastes are pretty eclectic. My parents love country classics like Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. I love classic rock bands like The Doors and Led Zepplin, My wife loves new music like Kings of Leon, and My 21 year old son loves listening to Rap music and hip hop artists like Kanye West and Eminem. Needless to say when we want to go out and listen to some live entertainment as a family it's a little tricky to find an overall enjoyable experience.
Living in and working in Las Vegas NV. You get a sense that anyone with a little talent and a guitar can start a band and make a living playing cover songs. But as you really delve into the music scene you realize that most of the bands are exactly the same, except for a few key gimmicks there isn't really a group that sets themselves apart. At least thats what I used to think.
Last week my family decided to grab a late dinner at The Sammy Hagar owned, Cabo Wabo inside of the Planet Hollywood Casino. Just as we were finishing up our mean a young guy approached us with a song menu. He explained to us that he was in the band that would be playing in a few minuets and that they were an all by request band called Acoustic Soul. It really was a unique genius concept. The Song Menu has little over 300 songs from all different genres and styles of music. The audience writes down the songs they want to hear on post-it notes and then the Acoustic Soul plays it for them in the order they get it.
If that alone wasn't impressive enough. We quickly realize this band is amazing. They are playing their own versions of the songs we wanted to hear, doing a killer job with each one. This had to be the most diverse band we had ever heard. They played Hendrix, they Played Cheap Trick, They Played Dr. Dre, They Played The Who, They played all our favorites including Johnny Cash! Instead of having a lead guitarist like every other band in the world, Acoustic Soul has a female lead rock Violinist. She plays Bass most of the night but when she gets out that Violin she really wails on it! It was so cool. I can not stress that enough. Then we find out the Drummer for Acoustic Soul is the Drummer who played with Rick James. It was cool because they were all multi instrumentalists, switching instruments and creatively playing different arrangements on songs that typically didn't feature only four members.
The lead singer, Hal Savar was by far the best front man I have ever seen. He sang for 4 hours straight, and his voice was powerful and soulful. He kept up his energy and was on stage singing for 4 hours straight. This guy truly was the hardest working lead singer I had ever seen.
At the end of the evening we wanted more but the band had to go. As it turns out the whole family was entertained. All I can say is that Hal Savar's Acoustic Soul is going to Save the uniform and stale live entertainment scene in Las Vegas. if you Haven't seen them, check out their web site and go see them play!
