In front of a guitar-loving crowd, Tim Reynolds stole the stage at Otto’s Niteclub, 118 E. Lincoln Highway, Thursday, performing with his band TR3.

Reynolds, best known for his guest guitar appearances with the Dave Matthews Band, has always been known in the industry as one of the best guitar players around. He did not disappoint in DeKalb.

From the opening tune “Cave Man,” all the way to the last song of the night, “Soul Sacrifice,” eyes were glued on the guitar god as he made extremely difficult guitar solos seem like a breeze.

One of the highlights of the night was a solo rendition of the tune “Stream,” which was released on a Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds live CD and is consistently shouted at Reynolds shows across the country. He obliged the shouting fans’ requests by playing the song on the electric guitar, a rare occasion.

The James Brown cover got the crowd rolling late in the set with “Mad Cow” and “Intoxicated Pooh” making their way on stage to do a bit of dancing during the song.

The crowd was into the show most of the night, although it never seemed full on the main floor. The DeKalb community who did not show up to Otto’s Thursday missed seeing one of the great guitar players of our day up close and personal.

Opening the show were two Chicago bands, Tula and Van Ghost. Tula started things off with a mix of tunes that sound like a combination of Phish and Tea Leaf Green.

Tula had just formed six months earlier according to a band member. They sounded flawless in their first DeKalb performance.

Van Ghost, a six-man team of musicians, kept the crowd into the show with a variety of songs about love and feeling alone.

After the performance, both Mick Vaughn and Dan Martier said they had never been to Otto’s before, but loved the way the venue was laid out. Both TR3 members expressed desire of wanting to play to another DeKalb crowd in the future.