"This is the strangest place I ever played," so said Bronson Arroyo at the beginning of his set at redundantly named Fitworks Fitness Center in West Chester, Ohio, Saturday night. You have to forgive Mr. Arroyo for forgetting the 35,000 knuckledraggers decked out in green, red and (ugh) pink Sawx gear when he pitched in the shadow of the Pesky Pole, but Fitworks was a close second in weird venues.

Despite poor seating, bad acoustics, technical difficulties that caused a brief delay early in the set, and a horde of Southwest Ohio's finest, Arroyo knocked his performance out of the park (pun intended) with a mix of '90s alt-rock classics and the occasional contemporary and '70s classics thrown in for good measure.

As an added bonus, the concert was a benefit for the group Homes For Our Troops, which retrofits houses for wounded vets. He then stuck around to sign autographs for a motley bunch of unwashed animals, which deserves recognition on a number of levels.

Arroyo's set included his standards: Fuel's Shimmer and a version of Slide that is better than the Goo Goo Dolls. He's added Over my Head by The Fray, Augustana's Boston (after an explanation that he was happy in Cincy and didn't miss Boston...right) and a killer cut of Simple Man by the Van Zandt boys that got me pumped for the coming Kid Rock concert at the World's Most Famous Arena in just over a month.

His multi-talented keyboard player also handled sax and clarinet responsibilities and also served as the bouncer/head cougar wrangler (Bronson Arroyo concerts = Cougar Friendly) of the VIP section on the first floor. Dude also belted out a version of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy that was a neat change of pace in the middle of the show.

Some chick straight off this site sang a couple songs, but you really couldn't hear anything when she was up there. She was easy enough on the eyes, though. I have to be careful, because her boyfriend--the West Chester gator--was hawking her from atop a speaker all night long.

Bronson did spice up the night with some story about Dusty Baker during a mound visit. I really couldn't make out what he was saying (acoustics), but I think that Dusty told the Reds' infield that they needed to turn two, and it would only happen if they had faith. For the record, Dusty wears wrist bands and chews on a toothpick in the dugout.

If Carolina wasn't getting boat raced by 28 points in the first half simultaneously on twin 42-inch plasma screens beside the stage, I may have even considered the evening halfway enjoyable. If the pitching gig didn't come to fruition, Bronson is talented enough to have a nice career as a successful acoustic musician playing gigs in college towns. He puts on a great show, has a blast doing it and possesses a knack for picking perfect songs for his skillset.

CONCERT NOTES: To the guy with the Color Me Bad beard that needed 3 pictures with Bronson on his stupid camera phone and kept cutting the line to get his hat (not even a Reds hat) autographed, there is a special place in Hell for you. May God have mercy on your soul...Fitworks is an awesome gym, it was great advertising and incredibly generous of them to open up the joint...Bronson gave up 4 dingers today, however he has 11 K's in 10.2 IP, but he needs to get his WHIP (1.5) down...For Bronson's album, Covering the Bases, go here http://www.amazon.com/Covering-Bases-Bronson-Arroyo/dp/B0009XFIT6.

Labels: Bronson Arroyo