Blood Brothers - Musical Arlington Theatre reviews
Rincon Harrah's concert Gary Clark Jr.
The Blood Brothers - Musical concert at Harrah’s Casino Friday night Sept. 19th 2026 in the Rincon events center room was attended by my wife and me. This venue was visited by us for the first time. Room size was nice. In designated seats, we sat back by the sound mixer. Not because we couldn’t get closer, I chose them but because the sound should be best at that spot if the sound guy is mixing to what he is hearing, right?
A little after 9:00pm, the show started and Gary was accompanied by a drummer, Johnny Radelat, a solid simple player that I like very much, bass player, Johnny Bradley and a second guitar player, Eric Zapada who is excellent. These are all great players that I’ve heard before on recordings so I know they can play.
The power of the opening song “Catfish Blues” was awesome overall, and I like powerful punchy in your face blues and rock. It also shows what kind of sound system you’re dealing with. This system was top end.
Here’s the problem. Right away you could tell there was no recognizing individual notes from the bass. Unfortunately Bradley could have been just playing the root note of each song and I don’t think it would have made any difference. As solid as he was you just couldn’t tell what he was playing. I wanted part of my money back. Not, it was still a very cool show.
It reminded me of a concert with Randy Jackson on bass and it was so loud you could not hear the notes he was playing. I blame the room acoustics and the only way a sound guy can deal with it is to turn everything down.
Drums were pretty clear; you could hear each tom and cymbals. The bass drum knocked you over like it should. Guitars were bright and punchy but there were times when the effects got a little over the top psycho spaced out and individual notes just became climbs. Kind of bothers me, as a guitar player, when cheap guitar riffs with overdone effects gets the crowd cheering. Don’t get me wrong, in the right spot in the song it works and both these guys are excellent players that I enjoy listening to. I think it all comes back to the overall sound. If I can’t hear what they’re actually playing it loses something. I was not drinking that night either.
Vocals were up front but just not quite at the point where you could get every word. Gary is a very good singer with a nice to listen to voice.
Which brings me to the crowd. My wife had a screamer in her right ear most of the night but what bothered me was the group that would stand up with their cell phones to record the whole song even though it was in front of other people. The seats were all on the same level. Very comfortable seats though. When we first sat down I had no one in front of me and I thought “very cool, I’ll be able to see this show” but of coarse not too much later a couple sat down right in front of me which wouldn’t have been so bad but this guy had huge shoulder’s and no neck. Really, no neck.
Couple hour show, good songs, two big screens thankfully but man it would have been a killer show if you could hear everything clearer. I might reconsider going to a concert at this venue next time for that reason.
It was a fun night anyway.