Steven Seagal's band plays to sellout audience...Well not really

Taken from Canoe.ca:

RAMA, Ont. - Steven Seagal traded martial arts moves for blues guitar licks last night as the 55-year-old action star brought his band Thunderbox to Casino Rama for the first of two shows. And let's just say, he's as good a musician as he is an actor. 

While the surreal experience of seeing the six-foot-four-and-a-half star of such blockbusters as Above The Law and Under Seige wailing away on a Les Paul is hard to put into words, his hour-and-25-minute show was actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be.

Really, given my low expectations, Seagal had nowhere to go but up.

A bar band entertainer at best -- Seagal should stick to playing small venues and forget about singing entirely given his mumbled, often hushed delivery -- his performance was elevated by his sharp-sounding seven-piece band of Memphis players, notably a female drummer who he introduced as Baby Girl.

His strong-sounding male backup singer Jermaine Paul was also the most animated person on stage and even took over on lead vocals on one song, Do Dat Thing, reminding the audience just what a poor vocalist Seagal really is.

Touring in support of his second album, Mojo Priest, which features such classics as Talk To My Ass, Love Doctor, Alligator Ass, and She Dat Pretty -- all of which he played in concert -- the beefy actor was decked out casually in a purple silk sleeveless smock, turquoise beads, jeans and boots.

But it was hard to take your eyes off his shiny brown face, which looked like he'd been dipped in Willy Wonka's chocolate river, and his wacky mullet (no ponytail) that gave Donald Trump a run for his money in the bad hair department.

Seagal's demeanor, for the first half of the concert anyways, verged on serious, as he said very little to the audience other than "Thank-you," and hardly moved from his place in front of the microphone. (Maybe it was the long day, given he had been in Toronto for a noon-hour press conference in support of the skin care line L'Acrima.)

But the show's second half saw Seagal warm up considerably, smiling his Buddha smile, and just getting more comfortable as about 50 audience members moved to the front of the stage.

It was while he was introducing his band members, in particular his pretty female backup singer, that he said the most he did all night: "Everyone in the band wants some, but we're not getting any."

"Not everyone," added Baby Girl.

Last night's show only drew about 2,000 people -- just less than half of the entertainment centre's capacity -- and tonight's second show will host about 3,000 concert goers.

Still, grown men in last night's crowd could be heard screaming, "I love you Steven!" and a group of younger guys started chanting "Under Seige! Under Seige!" right before Seagal came back out on stage to perform Wild Thing for the encore.

And then there was the one woman who just stood transfixed right in front of him for the entire concert, with her hands clasped to her chin.

Safe to say, Seagal's core following remains firmly intact, all of those straight-to-video films of the last few years notwithstanding.