LIVE: Dave Mason & Super 400 @ The Egg, 02/16/2022 

• Perfect guitar work
• On point from the first note
• Great five-piece band
• Black on black color scheme
• One hour and 11 minutes (including encore) 
• One quarter of a house in The Egg’s largest theater
• “Dear Mr. Fantasy” without the fantasy
• Traffic without Steve Winwood
• “The Low Spark of High Healed Boys” yes! 
• “Apache,” a number one Brit hit in 1960 by The Shadows
• “I’m Wasted and I Can’t Find My Way Home” best song of the set
• “All Along The Watch Tower” perfect encore
• A stiff cold beer without the chaser
• A peanut butter and jelly sandwich without the peanut butter
• “Feelin’ Alright?”  I’m not feelin’ so good myself
• Albany, one stop out of 100 a year

Is that all there is? 

I saw Dave Mason twice in 2019, once at The Egg and once a The King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Arkansas. While the Albany show felt like he was punching a time clock, the Arkansas appearance closed out the three-day festival and had everyone dancing in the aisle. At 75, he’s a legend whose been playing with other legends since he formed Traffic at 21 in 1967. He’s got it down. But we’ve all have been “down” so long, it may feel like up as Geoff Muldaur would say. But up to me today means letting your hair down. Dave Mason has no hair left to be let down. And an hour and five minutes is too short even if you do have a crack five-piece band. 

Opening act Super 400 was the yin to Dave Mason’s yang. They were only allowed 30 minutes to open. Bass player and vocalist Lori “Gal” Friday announced to the sparse crowd that her band, one of the best and most tenured of regional rock groups, was celebrating 26 years together. Fronted by Kenny Hohman on guitar and vocals, with Joe Daley on drums, they also introduced a new keyboardist, Chris Carey. He’s just been added officially to the band two weeks ago. They played two new songs up now on their brand-new website, super400.com. One of them, “You Are My Light,” includes the lyric: 

“We can get there if we really try 
it’s what I tell myself when my kite won’t fly 
but you’re my light now 
you’re my one true friend 
we got it right now and the time won’t bend”

They brought their eight-year-old daughter Ellie up on stage to play tambourine on the last number. She was three months old when Super 400 opened for Dave Mason at Alive at Five. 

What a study in contrasts!