Mattson 2 & Tommy Guerrero @ The Federal

The opportunity of seeing both Mattson 2 and Tommy G. made the drive to Long Beach worthwhile.  And Ray Barbee would be playing with both.

The venue was The Federal, which used to be a bank located in downtown Long Beach.  Parking was surprisingly easy to find ($6).  Walking in, the conversion from bank to restaurant/bar was well done.  However, the concert was held downstairs in a plain room, painted concrete floor, with a raised band floor (good).  The huge walk-in vault had been converted to the swag room with CDs and T-shirts available.

I walked into the vault to review swag and ran into Tommy G, and thanked him in advance for the concert.  Tommy was genuinely appreciative.  Cool dude.

Another venue negative:  while the main floor had a respectable on-tap selection that did not appear to be the same downstairs.  My Tanqueray and Tonic as reasonably priced ($8) but as with all drinks except canned beer, it was served in a plastic cup.

Mattson 2 with Ray Barbee

Mattson 2 took the stage with Ray Barbee.  Great show with plenty of back and forth between the 2 guitars.

During the band changeover, I surveyed the crowd.  I guess you could say I am an outlier on the band demographics.  Plenty of flannel and T-shirts.  Beanies.  Mostly 20-somethings.  Yeah, I blend.

Tommy and the band took the stage.  Band members were the same as were at the Lafayette a few months ago with the addition of a conga player.  Tommy has a coolness stage presence that makes it hard to believe this is a side gig from skateboarding and that business.  He is now my favorite west coast musician.

I had a conference call at 1am so I left mid-performance.  I spent all of 10 minutes on that call once connected.  The Eindhoven co-workers were disappointed I had to leave a concert for the CC and were interested in what ‘Surf Jazz’ sounds like.  I emailed videos links of M2 and Tommy G to a few of the co-workers.