After an hour of fruitless wandering around downtown Saratoga in search of something other than tepid coverbands, I stop in the Circus Cafe on my way home and am blown away by Albany-based bluesman George Boone, who sounds like the second coming of B.B. King (right down to his King-signed Epiphone.) Boone is the real deal: the roadhouse maverick King was before he became a icon, jumping up on the bar and screaming his vocals in a caterwaul. Just goes to show you never know what you'll find outside the bright city lights; hope to see him downriver sometime.

I don't know if The Tavern section of Orff's Carmina Burana technically qualifies as bar music, but I'll go out on a limb and say the Philadelphia Orchestra (who played C.B. and Jennifer Higdon's 2007 composition Concerto 4-3 at SPAC earlier) is the best bar band in town tonight. By at least a half-a-dozen lengths.

More pics after the jump.

I didn't think I'd end up falling for a local jazz band named Flavor, playing in the center strip of downtown Saratoga's Mardi Gras-like madness. But, these guys have solid chops and killer hooks, enough to get half the bar up dancing.