i've never seen pat donohue live, but my dad has several times. my whole family went and we were lucky enough to sit in the center of the second row, right in front of the stage - i had a great view of pat's 'picking hand.' one of our favorite parts was when pat came out after intermission and sat down on a stool - a screen came down, covering him completely. everything went dark in the theater, the screen lit up and you could see his shadow playing behind it. about half-way through the number he came walking out from behind it, not playing at all - everyone started laughing. the spotlight lit him up as he sat down on another stool adjacent to the screen and played a duet with himself.
it was great to see the other musicians he had up on stage with him, particularly noah hoehn, an amazing harmonica player with fabulous style. he left everyone in my family with our mouths hanging open at least twice during the show. stuart duncan was also wonderful on the fiddle; roma de luna played as well, they were as great as i knew they'd be.
many familiar songs were played, and the audience was often invited to sing along - everyone really got into it. when the players came back onstage after their standing ovation to play the final song (their version of walk of life by the dire straits), as everyone was sitting back down, i said "thank you" to pat, for coming back out. he answered me, saying "no, thank you - you're seeing me having about as much fun as a grown man can have." that was evident throughout the show - everyone had a blast.