I'll admit we were already Bill Kirchen fans and that's the main reason we bought tickets. But we learned that Tom Principato was something of a local legend and fierce guitarist, heard some recordings and thought it would be a fun introduction (we've heard lots of new-to-us musicians at The Birchmere, most of which were the opening acts). Bill Kirchen and his two co-horts (Too Much Fun) were amazing -- an incredible amount of fantastic new and old music coming from 3 musicians. Bill's great personality and energy are totally uplifting and smile-inducing. After that start to the evening, the rest was frankly a disappointment and we left early. Principato had NINE musicians on stage in a relatively small venue, including 3 horns!!! While his guitar-playing was impressive, it was all too much, too loud, too long for that venue. We hardly ever leave any event early, but we didn't want to lose the Bill Kirchen high.