Attendees of the Neville Brother’s concert at the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo witnessed a lot of strange and magical occurrences Saturday night.

The first was the concert’s venue, McElroy Auditorium, and the crowd who gathered there.

McElroy Auditorium is a fairly small place with a set-up much like Hilton Coliseum. It is capable of seating about seven thousand people.

The acoustics aren’t particularly good and the stage is pretty small. Of those 7,000 seats, only 10 percent were filled.

To put this into perspective, the seats on the floor (which was a mixture of soft dirt and cow shit) were less than halfway filled and the bleachers were almost desolate.

Does this mean that it was a poor concert? Absolutely not.

Thirteen-(or is it 14, the announcer couldn’t seem to decide throughout the performance)-year-old Brody Buster brought the night to life with his absolutely amazing harmonica skills and his coarse voice.

Through the course of his set, Buster lived up to his reputation as the “Boy Wonder of Blues” by playing numerous blues numbers and several cover versions, the best of which included Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” The Ohio Players’ “Roller Coaster” and Sly and the Family Stone’s “Thank You For Lettin’ Me Be Mice Elf Agin.”

After Buster warmed the audience up, the Neville Brothers took stage.

The band could have easily played half-hearted for the sparse crowd. But instead, it rocked the place to the best of its ability, which is quite considerable.

Aaron’s voice soared on “Don’t Know Much,” which was originally a duet with Linda Ronstadt. It is impossible to describe the rich tone and variance of his voice.

Charles delivered some fantastic saxophone solos, Art handled the keyboards with flair and Cyril provided a backbone with his conga play.

The group’s set lasted a little over two hours and contained enough blues and hits for any music fan to walk away happy.

The Neville Brothers did a 20-minute version of the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” that was much better than the Stones could ever hope to play it.

“Tell It Like It Is” had the audience dancing in the rows, while Bob Dylan’s “Times Are A Changing” warmed the chilliest heart.

A medley of “Down On The Bayou,” “Down On The River” and several children’s songs followed, with great dancing from the entire band.

But the highlights of the evening had to be the group’s version of Bob Marley’s “One Love” and “Amazing Grace.”

The latter in particular proved that Aaron is one of the best singers of the last few decades.

He delivered the song with perfection (a feat that very few people can do) and had the audience on its feet, many with tears in their eyes.

No, I wouldn’t say it was a bad concert at all. It was excellent.