Re: Your 1st live Blues experiences
Alpine Valley - August 1990.
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38 2015-06-23 14:30:37 (edited by bobkatmsu 2015-06-23 14:53:20)
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Re: Your 1st live Blues experiences
ohiodawg13 wrote:
My first trip to a Bill Graham show at the Fillmore West (not the Fillmore that still exists today) I saw Eric Burdon backed by War doing mostly blues songs. Was a great experience and I went back for more every chance I got. Bill loved the blues and mixed blues acts with rock acts in his show line-ups. These gigs in those days cost $3 on Thur. & Sun. nights and $3.50 on Fri. & Sat. nights. Here's a list of many of those shows which was how I got schooled on blues music. The Bay Area was the best place on the planet for concerts like BB King, Buddy Guy, & The Allman Bros. 4 nights in a row!!! Have a look at the others, and these were just the Fillmore West shows. There were just as many good ones going on at Winterland across town.
www.chickenonaunicycle.com/Fill%20West%20Shows.htmDig It!
J Dawg
Ok, it wasn't Fillmore West, but for the little town of East Lansing, Michigan a bar called The Brewery, in the early '70's had it all. I worked there while going to college as a Bouncer, I later became Assistant Night Mgr., After a fight in the parking lot that the night manager and I went to break up, I became night manager. How you ask? Well my boss got shot in the leg and the shooter missed me 3 times. So I got the job by default. I later became a part owner. But these were some of the national acts that came through, at least the ones I can remember, in no particular order.'
Aerosmith
Rush
Joe Walsh(he almost got arrested for inciting a riot, fun night. One of my all time best memories was sitting on the stage at the end of the night talking to Joe, for an hour, while the roadies tore down the equipment. He mostly talked about how he liked the old style guitars and amps better than the new stuff. Sound familiar?)
Peter Frampton
ZZ Top(before the beards)
Iggy Popp and the Stooges(broke a pitcher on stage then rolled in it, wearing only bikini briefs)
Kiss(showed up mid day in full make-up. Hung around our restaurant, talking to customers. Then did a 1 hour sound check just for the employees, while they set up for the night. Our own private show. Absolute great guys.)
Willie Dixon
T Rex
Capt Beefheart
The Tubes(Fee Waybill, doing a C-section on a white guitar, with a mic'ed up chainsaw, bloody innards and all, but he saved the baby, a little white guitar)
Butterfield Blues Band
Luther Allison
Charlie Musslewhite(Thing I remember most about Charlie was he drank Chivas Regal Scotch and milk, a lot of it)
BTO
Big Star
Styx
Sly and the Family Stone
MC5
Chuck Berry
Bob Segar
Ted Nugent
Kansas
Rory Gallagher(Having Joe's lithograph of him playing Rory's guitar, has special meaning to me)
Dr. Hook
Dr. John
Rick Nelson
Climax Blues Band
Weather Report
REO Speedwagon
I'm sure there are more I don't remember. Not a bad list for a 3 year period in the early 70's.
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Re: Your 1st live Blues experiences
I'd been introduced to the blues at a young age, around 14/15 I guess, but didn't really 'get it'. I was into classic guitar based rock and that was that.
Then I went to see Eric Clapton at the NEC (Birmingham UK) in around 1987 when I was 21/22 years old and whilst I enjoyed his set, it was his low-profile support act that really hooked me in - one Mr Robert Cray. Cray stole the whole show for me, I wasn't interested in Clapton after the show, all I was focused on is going out to buy Strong Persuader the next day. My mates thought I had gone mad, it was so NOT me!
Gary Moore sealed it a year or two later with his Still Got The Blues Tour, I went, lapped it up and became a lover of blues, albeit the "rockier" the better. His death really upset me a lot. One of my life's wishes was to see GM and JB on stage together, the dream-team in my book. Such a shame.....
But yeah, Robert Cray was the initial hook. I owe him a beer.