I attended the first edition of this summer’s Playing With Fire free concert series at the Lewis & Clark Landing. Playing With Fire is an ongoing series of national, international and local blues bands playing on a big stage and sound system next to the river. It’s one of the easiest local events to attend and enjoy. I pulled up 45 minutes after the official start time and worried about downtown parking headaches. I found a free parking spot easily and saw many more still available. That is not to say that there was no one at the event. After giving a free will donation to help support the event and the Omaha Food Bank I walked down to the concourse and found a festival-sized group of people setting up their urban lawn chairs and socializing with other music fans. Even with a lot of people there, there were still more than enough places to settle in with a great view of the acts. Bracing myself to get gouged by festival food pricing I headed over to the many vendors offering everything from pizza, barbecue, burgers and burritos and only paid $2.50 for a slice of good local pizza. Beer, mixed drinks, fruit smoothies and even good coffee was available at reasonable prices as well.

Sadly, I think I missed the opening act, which is always one of the Blues Ed bands. These are groups formed by local kids that are mentored by local musicians to help get them started. It’s always enjoyable to check out the progress and passion of the young musicians. The first band that I did catch was the Burgundy & the Gray, which is the open jam band from Wednesday nights at Downtown Blues. That band included local guitarist Hector Anchondo and other local music veterans ripping into classic blues and mixing it up with covers of Hendrix, Santana and others. It was nice to see Hector playing outside of his own rock band Anchondo, as he is a stellar guitarist with a lot of range, and this project puts a lot more focus on that playing. Up next was Ronnie Baker Brooks, who is my favorite touring blues act that comes through town on a regular basis. The Chicago blues man and son of legendary blues musicians Lonnie Brooks hybrids the blues, soul and funk nicely into an always energetic and flashy package.

I didn’t really know anything about headliner Gaetano Pellino except that he was flown in from Italy for this event. I can’t say that I personally found anything all that special about the guy. He played a standard bar-rock set of blues mixing in the typical soul and classic rock covers along with his originals. He had a good group of musicians up there with him, but beyond that and a Tom Waits cover nothing seemed to grab me. I may have been alone on that though as there were hundreds of people dancing and drinking and clamoring for more at the front of the stage as the event pushed past 11 p.m.

Typically, exiting a festival type setting involves long lines and frustration as you try to get to your final destination for the night, which may involve a much needed slumber at home or another band at a local bar to keep the good times flowing. I exited the Playing With Fire event with no delay and made it on time to see Mike Watt put on a fun and tight set at the Waiting Room. I am sure many people headed over to the close-by Farrell’s Bar, which featured the official post party that they call the Afterburn, which many times features that musicians from the event jamming. I highly recommend checking out some of the remaining Playing With Fire events coming up this summer, as they are easy to attend and an inexpensive way to enjoy some music. The next event is June 13 with Angel Forrest, Trampled Under Foot, the Mezcal Brothers and If All Else Fails.