Bill Murray and His Blood Brothers brought both the blues and the laughter to take them away at The Sound.
Thursday October 16th saw an absolutely magical and unforgettable show in Del Mar, when the legendary Bill Murray and His Blood Brothers performed at The Sound San Diego. The hilarious comedian and actor is clearly on a bit of a late career tangent, channeling his days as a lounge singer on Saturday Night Live, by fronting this established blues-rock duo made of guitarists Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia. According to the band’s bio, Murray has been playing and recording with the brothers since an appearance at the Las Vegas Big Blues Bender in 2022, and has also been recording musical albums featuring his vocal talents since 2017.
On this fine October evening the comedian was in excellent form, belting out some familiar blues standards as well as classic rock covers, while also maintaining his classic hilarious stage presence with antics that had the San Diego audience laughing and dancing. The fans for this show were clearly mixed, tons of old blues heads and fans of some of the amazing players onstage, along with a whole host of San Diego faithful dressed up as Bill Murray inspired characters from his movies like Ghostbusters and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, just there to catch a phone video of the legend in the flesh. Most people in the crowd seemed annoyed to be out so late on a Thursday evening, but were eventually won over by the time the blues music started shuffling along.
After a rather slow opening song that saw the 75 year-old Mr. Murray hanging toward the back of the stage playing congas and percussion, Bill stepped forward and hit overdrive for a rousing cover of the Kinks “Tired of Waiting for You” that got the show rolling properly. Other great standouts from the set included The Animal’s “House of the Rising Sun,” “Money Changes Everything” by The Brains that saw Murray emphatically shouting the hook, and some final rousing covers of “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan, and “Love the One You’re With” by Stephen Stills. Murray’s singing voice, far from perfect pitch, was absolutely full of emotion and life experience, some of the lyrics in these songs clearly resonating with him deeply. He was a shockingly emotional singer, and some of the songs were funny and yet somehow deeply moving as well.
The Blood Brother’s incredible backing band for this set was on point to say the least, all incredible and legendary musicians helping Murray bring this chaotic vision to life. A standout was guitarist Jimmy Vivino, famous for his time on the Conan O’Brien show with the Basic Cable Band, he played fantastic blues guitar and sang as well including a powerful cover of “Shotgun” by Jr. Walker and The All Stars. What an interesting and unique experience this show as to say the least. Going in not knowing what to expect, fans were given not only a great concert, but a look at a funny man still inspiring us to live passionately, enjoy art, and continuing to have fun with friends. We should all be so lucky at 75 to be out on the road, meeting fans, and introducing people to great musical talent. If this show ever makes its way back to San Diego, don’t be one of the ones who missed out.
