Coral Reefer Band - Hollywood Fl 3/14

I was lucky enough to go to the show last night and thought some of you might want to know what it was like. First and foremost, if you have a chance to catch this show and are a Jimmy fan, it is worth the time. I drove 3 1/2 hours to go and don't regret a minute of it.

The warm up band was just Scotty with Mac as a backup which was an awesome choice. He did a few of his Toby Keith songs along with Why Don't You Love Me Like My Dog Does. Having Scotty and Mac as the warmup was so much better than having some band I've never heard of.

After the warm up, they ran a video tribute to Jimmy that was really well done. Throughout the evening, they would intersperse pictures and videos of Jimmy with live shots of the band on the screens near the stage.

Once the band came out, they largely stuck to the hits with a handful of deeper cuts. Scotty and Mac were probably 50/50 on taking the lead for the bulk of the songs while Mac took care of introducing each song with a little story about Jimmy. Nadirah took a couple including a beautiful version of One Particular Harbor.

At one point, Mac called the evening a family reunion for Parrotheads and that was the vibe. It felt like getting together with friends you have know for decades in the audience. Jimmy's daughter came out to get everyone on their feet for Fins and talk about how much her Dad would have loved to see that the party was still going.

In 2022, I was dealing with some stuff and decided that I would take a pass on that year's concert. I decided that missing 1 year wasn't a big deal and I'd catch Jimmy again next time. Obviously, none of us knew there wouldn't be a "next time". I still regret not going that year - Jimmy has helped me celebrate the good times and helped me answer the questions in the bad times - but this concert really helped. For me, it was a chance to say goodbye to someone who didn't know I existed yet had a profound impact on my life. Seeing the band gave me some closure but it was also just one more fun time with the Parrotheads. We may be older but we haven't grown up.

Go if you can. It's worth it.