Arc Angels blew the doors off the House of Blues 7/7/07

The 1600 people that packed in for a sold out performance were ready to rock, and tonight so were the Arc Angels.

The foursome of Charlie Sexton, Doyle Bramhall, Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon were brought together in the form of the Arc Angels after the death of Stevie Ray Vaughn and since their breakup in 1993, they have played few shows together. Part driven by busy schedules and separate projects, probably also because of egos and hurt feelings, this quartet actually looked like they enjoyed playing together again. And according to what Mike Daniel of the Dallas Morning News heard during the performance that went totally by me, it might not be the last time.  Very good…..

I have seen Chris and Tommy several times as members of Storyville, another great Austin band that was formed after the collapse of Arc Angels and still play occasionally at Antones. Doyle I last saw in person many, many moons ago when he was obviously still fighting drug addiction since he looked like death warmed over at the time and Charlie I have never seen since I do not spend near enough time in Austin, Damn it. But these guys together last night were just short of amazing and hopefully the passing of years and maturity will keep them playing together for a while longer.

Most of their set consisted of songs off their only album, titled appropriately, Arc Angels, and probably the song that piqued the interest of the faithful the most was "Sent By Angels". The crowd showed it’s approval by singing right along and from my vantage point, some better than others. And the guitar duel with Doyle and Charlie at the end of "Shape I’m In"  (Doyle won hands down) was worth having to sit through the grunge / heavy metal opening act that my ears are still ringing from.

Watching Doyle play guitar, there is no question why he is part of Eric Clapton’s touring band and it is much deserved. Charlie changed guitars about as much as the guy in front of me was changing beers at the bar, but is a great musician and will be looking for some of their solo work in the digital world in the near future.

Tommy and Chris were their usual selves, hanging out in the back of the stage, well, just being Tommy and Chris. I think you could throw these two in the middle of any band and they could catch up in a half-note. Tommy has never been a flashy bass player but it was obvious he was in some kind of back or shouder pain, so kudos for him being a trooper for hitting the stage at all.

If you want to hear some of this great blues-rock, then head on over to Amazon and pick you up a copy of their album for a whopping 8 bucks or download it off ITunes. You will not be disappointed. Hopefully we will have another album to look forward to….

If you want to see some great photos of Tommy’s career and who he has played with, go take a look at the photo album on his web site.