I’m going to start with full disclosure. I was not looking forward to Seasick Steve at all!! He was on the Rhinestone stage after Alana Springsteen, so I decided I would listen to a couple of songs and then I would go and see who else was playing either on the Front Porch or Interstate stage. However, almost as soon as he started, he had me captivated and I stayed for the whole set! It wasn’t so much his music, it was a combination of both him and his stories.
It was just him and his drummer on stage and he played electric guitar and during his set he bought out a variety of instruments that he had made himself. The first one it was made of a piece of 2 x 2 wood, a handle from a Chevrolet, a can of jolly Greene giant corn and then just the one string (I wouldn’t have known that he told us!) He called it a diddlyboo and he proceeded to sing a song about a diddlyboo!
By now It wasn’t just me enjoying it, he had the crowd in the palm of his hand, the crowd started to chant “Steveo” in a football type chant!
He was drinking from a bottle of wine which he had on stage with him. He didn’t see the necessity for a glass, the bottle was fine!!
Steve jumped down from the stage to the audience and picked out a young lady, helped her over the barrier and then took her back on stage with him and proceeded to serenade her after giving her a stool!
One of the home-made instruments he bought out he told us that he made it whilst he was in prison! It was a Mississippi license plate, three pieces of wood and he said it “ain’t no AI!”
After the song he chugged from the bottle again saying it was thirsty work “Hope you’re all having a good time” chug he repeated himself and chugged again! He then spoke about the guitar he now had, he said that the three strings was like cheese grater and he frequently needed Band-Aids when playing it! He got the guitar for $75 when the original price was $125, but now he thinks they should have paid him! He said “in America I can’t get a job sweeping the floor, here you guys seem to love me” and yes, Steve we really were loving you.
He was then in the middle of telling another story about growing up, when a fight broke out! We later learnt that it was a female pushing her way through the crowd, a guy objected to this and pushed her back, at which point the guy who was with the female swung a punch! Steve saw it, jumped up and immediately yelled at them. He told them to pack it in right now or he would come and sort them out! The drummer also jumped off his stool and the pair of them were standing on the stage, fists clenched, threatening to come and sort them out, the language was pretty ripe too! At one point he yelled “cut this shit out right now, I need to boogie” he yelled at security to take them the F**k out of here, the crowd were cheering and were happy at Steve’s actions! It is the first time in all my years of going to gigs and festivals that I have seen a performeR stop their set to stop a fight! You hear about it & I have read about it, but as I say, the first time I have actually witnessed it!
Apart from that little interlude, all in all it was an absolutely brilliant set and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was definitely my highlight of the whole weekend.