Saturday, May 31, 2008

Saturday night opens with Portugal's own blues-rock power trio, Budda Power Blues, featuring guitarist, vocalist and frontman, Budda, with Nico (drums, backing vocals) and Tó Barbot (bass, backing vocals). The group hails from Braga, a town north of Gaia, and demonstrate that the influence of Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Muddy Waters is truly international.

Wait a minute, they also do blues-style cover versions of Henry Mancini's "Pink Panther Theme" and the Ghostbusters theme. This has to be one of the most entertaining blues-rock power trio cover bands I've ever seen. Great mix of musicality, creativity and humor. Their version of Jimi's "Red House" includes a comedic section where the volume is brought down to essentially zero and Budda acts like he's channeling Hendrix. Sacrilege to purists, but excellent entertainment. It's great to see and hear Budda play the only reverse-headstock Stratocaster I've seen in Portugal. I'm guessing it's the Jimi Hendrix Voodoo model.