Ayron Jones With a Side of Shinedown February 2, 2022 Part 1

 

You would think after living in my city for over 30 years I would not make a wrong turn, but, true to form, I missed the exit and had to do a U-turn on the freeway.  Just kidding.  I got off and back on in the right direction.  In my defense, the city did change the freeway configuration so that the exit for downtown 20 years ago is not the exit for downtown in 2022.  But that is just a way to excuse my sense of direction.  Remember Sacramento?  So my husband and I were on our way to the Ayron Jones-Shinedown concert held in a 2,500 capacity venue on a chilly February Wednesday.  We took off work a little early and got there about 6:15 for what we thought was a 7:00 start.  Really it was 8:00, but even at 6:15 the line was down the street and around the corner.  I wasn't sure how the whole thing worked so we parked and walked to the front of the line to ask if this was the right line.  Remember Seether at the Ace of Spades?  We went through three lines before we found the one we were suppose to be in.  This time, one line, so we walked back down the street and around the corner.  The line had only grown along 500 West and  people kept adding to the line even after we started to move near 7:00.

Why Ayron Jones with a side of Shinedown?  What brought us to Aftershock in Sacramento was Seether (see Summer of Seether last year).  I had a chance to see them for the 3rd and 4th times, back to back, as it were, at the Ace of Spades and Aftershock the next day.  There were other bands to see (while we were waiting for Seether--I'm such a Seether die-hard) and we listened to some of them on my phone during the drive to Sacramento to find out who we were interested in seeing at the festival.  We really liked the rocky-bluesy sound of Ayron Jones and when I saw he was performing in February, I got us tickets.  Shinedown was the auxiliary band at the time I bought the tickets.  I had heard the name but didn't really associate them with any particular songs I'd heard.

So, there we were in line, glad of our hoodies.  Feeling sorry for the people in their shirtsleeves and slightly jealous of the folk wearing actual coats.  But it was a friendly line, breathing clouds of steam in the 25 degree evening.  -5 degrees-ish for you Celsius citizens.  "Isn't the concert starting at 7?" "Are they gonna start late?" "Are we going to miss it?" Making way for the cars trying to leave their underground parking garage like Moses parting the Red Sea.  Well, not really that epic.  We all just moved forward or back to let them out.  What a polite bunch of rockers we were.  

Finally back up to the gate.  Literally an iron fence with a roll-back gate.  Here is a Google Map picture.  I think they got the fence fixed since then cause I remember an iron fence with a rolling gate.  But it was dark, so who knows.  Sort of small, but those red signs say, "Entrance".

After the staff checked our vaccination cards and ran a wand over us for a weapons check, we were in the lobby of the venue.  With access to the bathroom, thank God.  I almost had a little show of my own after waiting 45 minutes in the cold.  Hey, I'm old(er).  No judgments, please.  So, after that I could concentrate on the venue.  Nice lobby, food to buy, drinks to be had.  Into the stage area double auditorium doors opened into a large warehouse looking space with the stage on the opposite end.  We were at a cafe table to the side of the General Audience standing area on a raised platform with the other premium seaters and watched as the GA filled with more and more people.  I had trouble keeping my butt from sliding off my premium seat, a barstool chair with a back.  My husband showed me his method of sitting sideways to wedge myself more firmly into the seat.  Our last name was on a piece of blue painter tape on one side of the table and the other side remained empty until after Aryon [A-ron] Jones and The Way was done.

The musicians came out and hit the ground running.  Such energy and connection from the group.  We were on the side with the second guitarist who was a joy to watch.  Between his beaming smile and his gorgeous hair that matched his big personality, I couldn't help but grin back. The drummer pulled off his t-shirt and tossed it to the side.  He proceeding to play the hell out of his drum kit.  The bass player on the other side of the stage had a great rapport with the other band members and with the drummer kept the music strong and together. Ayron Jones himself is a stellar guitar player.  He played one section using one of the drumsticks borrowed from the drummer.  Very cool. He played songs from his recent album, Child of the State, and the crowd was really into his music.  We enjoyed their show very much.  We liked them at Aftershock but were much further away.  By the time of the February show I had had four months of getting to know Mr. Jones' music, knew the words to at least two of his songs that are nestled in my Spotify favorites between Seether's Dangerous and Fade to Black by Metallica.  Boys From the Puget Sound and Take Me Away, which is my favorite.  I need to borrow my husband's CD of Child of the State so I can listen to the whole album in order (like it should be played).  I put it on his Christmas list for one of the kids to buy, but the cord shorted out in the CD player.  No fault of Ayron or The Way, but there you are.

My husband with the better camera on his phone and a better eye for photography, took some great pictures of the band.  If my research is correct the bassist, to the left of Ayron in the second photo is Bob Lovelace, the guitarist on the right with the voluptuous hair is Matthew Jacquette from Miami and Bobby Jimmi is drummer and hails from Memphis.  He is also a drum programmer and sequencer*.  Mr. Ayron Jones himself is the guitarist in the middle with the hat.

There are more photos, but many are rather blurry.  It may be the low lighting, but these musicians are so full of energy, they are as hard to pin down as hummingbirds.  They don't stay in one place on the stage very long.  I'm looking forward to the next album, but it looks like they will be very busy touring.  The are scheduled for a European tour in June, back to the U.S. in July for a couple weeks before touring in Canada until August.  Europe and Canada will love you all, too, fellas! 

If you want to keep track of where they are playing, here is the website address: https://ayronjonesmusic.com/ 

EM

*I had to look this up.  A drum programmer is what it sounds like.  A musician who is also  good with computers and can combine those skills.  So you have to have a good ear and be proficient using a computer.  A sequencer is . . . well, I think what the articles are telling me is that a sequencer is more fancy software and or hardware to go with the previous fancy software that a musician can use to do something musically.  Can you say, "Way over my head?"