This was the first performance I’ve gotten to see of The Buddhahood in their new formulation without Tony, with the addition of Bob Olson on guitar. I mostly know of Bob from The Mysterious Blues Band, another of Tony’s projects. I think everyone would agree that no one can replace Tony, but it seems very apropos that the person filling in the guitar slot is someone with a long musical relationship with Tony and it doesn’t hurt to have killer chops, which Bob has in spades.

It’s cool they way they’re splitting up vocal duties in the band, sort of decentralizing the front man role. Drew seems to take the lion’s share of the vocals, which since he’s a very strong vocalist makes sense, but they’ve either added or enriched the harmonies of many tracks as well. I suspect that has something to do with creating something new where what Tony brought to the band was not replaceable. It is a tribute to the survival instinct of music that such a great sound can come out of such a tragic loss for all of us.

The show was great, filled with a bunch of stuff that I of course knew, with about three songs or so that I didn’t.  Julia Figaris, the show’s host, seemed genuinely both entertained by the music and surprised by the vociferousness of we in the audience.  The guy running around with the steady cam actually started filming crew members at the end of the show who couldn’t resist the temptation to dance to the music.  I really hope that makes the final cut, because it proves a point that all of us who are Buddhahoodlums already know: you can’t be in the room and not fall into the groove.