Last night was a memorable Sunday for The Sandbar.
Peter Mayer is the lead guitarist for Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefers Band, and we were lucky enough to welcome him back to The Sandbar for the third time. Tickets for the show were $25 each, and if you've ever been to The Sandbar, you can guess how small and intimate the show was.
Peach and Ted graciously put Peter and his band up at The Lodge in Baldwin City on Saturday and Sunday night. They arrived in Lawrence Sunday afternoon, and Dave and Pat got to be roadies for the afternoon. The band was set up in front of the windows, in the front area of the bar. It was a little tight, but with only three band members it worked out fine. The concert started a little after 9 p.m. and we expected two 45 minute sets, but they definitely played a lot longer than that.
Towards the end of the final set, the band members moved into the middle of the bar, sat down, and played several acoustic songs with the audience piled around them. Several times he asked the crowd for requests.They even played some songs that his 18-year old fiddler had never played before!
When he started "Chain of Love," he encouraged a conga line, and Peach, Michelle, and Heather obliged in Sandbar style- by dancing on the bar.
The show was incredible. We had a full house with a diverse crowd of people- lots of our friends and regulars, but also some folks we didn't know. Peach's brother Patrick even had a high-school friend fly in for the show.
Peter told lots of stories in between songs- a great songwriter is always a great storyteller. He told us about how the band played somewhere in Michigan, and four hundred Parrotheads showed up hoping to hear Jimmy Buffett tunes all night- which is not what Peter Mayer plays. The crowd dwindled all night until they were playing to only a few people. No worries about that happening in Lawrence- everyone was there to hear their songs.
Were you there? Tell us what you thought about the show in the comments.
