M Peasley Posted June 7, 2004 Share Posted June 7, 2004 My son and I drove up from Austin (man, there were bikers all over the place from the huge biker rally in Austin this weekend). We were late because Mapquest (cursed be Mapquest forever) gave us a totally wrong location for the Cotton Bowl, so we had to do some serious backtracking. So we missed Steve Vai, but took our seats while Larry Carlton was playing. Next up was Pat Metheny with Christian McBride on bass and....I forget the drummer. I'm a major Metheny fan, and he did not disappoint at all. Then John McLaughlin with....Dennis Chambers on drums. I am always floored by Dennis Chambers - he played along with a tabla player, trading licks. How do those tabla players, with their hands, sound as fast as a rolling snare? Then Robert Cray - he got the crowd going with Still Hot Smoking Gun, Strong Persuader, etc. Jimmie Vaughn next up with, I think the Double Trouble guys backing. Here is Austin Jimmie in such a familiar face, it was business as usual with his great no-nonsense style. Then Hubert Sumlin (Howlin' Wolf's guiter sideman) and a singer I don't know - David Johansen. Sweet classic blues! Then Booker T and the MG's. I told my son before they came out, "I doubt if they will be all the same guys", but out came Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn with Booker T! Their first song was Hip-Hug Her which was the very first 45 I bought when I was in about 6th grade. Then Green Onions (which the crowd recognized). The B3 was NOT well miked for their set, which was a bummer. But still...one of my childhood B3 gods right there... Booker T and the guys stayed on stage and backed up Bo Diddley next. He was great - playing the oddest looking guiter - looked like a suitcase with a neck. He's still got the stuff - especially on I'm A M-A-N. Then David Hidalgo, the Los Lobos guy and a very fine blues guitar player. The crowd was not as familiar with him and drifted a bit. Man, it was HOT in Dallas by this time, and the seats would comfortably fit someone about 5 feet tall with a skinny butt...which is not me. But the crowd all came back for the crazy man himself, Joe Walsh. Still with Booker T backing up...he's the ultimate stadium crowd pleaser. Of course he wound up with Rocky Mountain High. Played a Rickenbacker with a slide and a Strat for the rest (which was a little brighter and harsher than his old Gibson SG). Then a big change for a few sets...Vince Gill playing a mean Telecaster, James Taylor doing Carolina in My Mind, Copperline, Sweet Baby James, and wound up with Steamroller Blues with Joe Walsh on lead - that's an unusual combination. Then Jimmie Vaughn came out again (the crowd a bit confused) but only to tease the crowd while he brought out (for a super-jam) Clapton, BB King, Buddy Guy, and John Mayer. Wow, I mean WOW. BB talked a lot, got all sentimental, and strange to say, the guys all seemed a little tentative lined up in a row, trying to jam. But just to see them all at once was a lifetime experience. Then Santana on center stage, the same Santana as ever. Dennis Chambers on drums again - Yay! - and a hot, hot set of classics. Then Clapton on with Steve Gadd on drums (oh, yeah - Gadd played with James Taylor, too) for a full set of blues classics, and his stock-in-trade stuff like Wonderful Tonight, Layla, Cocaine, I Shot The Sherriff, Badge, Have You Ever Loved A Woman. Now the crowd is acting a lot younger than the 30-40 something average age they were. Billy Preston on the B3!! He totally smoked it, with that big grin - I love the guy. Jeff Beck came out (he was really the main reason we finally decided to go to the concert) and played Now That We've Ended As Lovers from his old fusion stuff. How does he manage to still look 40? What a guitar player to watch...my favorite of them all. Then the Little Ole Band From Texas did their consummate thing, and the crowd was shouting out NATIONWIDE!!!! and SHARP-DRESSED MAN!!! and generally going nuts. I loved the fur-covered guitars. Now a big mean lookin thunderstorm was creeping up on the stadium, some drops started to fall, and to our dismay, the concert ended with ZZ Top- skipping the finale which was supposed to have Clapton and Jeff Beck come out and play along with ZZ. RATS. Oh well, still 11 hours of geetar and I don't there there has ever been a concert like this one. It was filmed all the way through, so look for the DVD and/or album - a concert for the ages. M Peasley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antimatter Posted June 7, 2004 Share Posted June 7, 2004 Thanks for the recap Sir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nawledge Posted June 7, 2004 Share Posted June 7, 2004 sounds like a corker man, we never get lineups like that in los angeles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherri Posted June 7, 2004 Share Posted June 7, 2004 Lucky bum! www.metalblues.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tedster Posted June 7, 2004 Share Posted June 7, 2004 So, what did each band play for like 5 minutes? Good lord...are you sure you didn't die and go to "Texstock Heaven"? "Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djwayne Posted June 7, 2004 Share Posted June 7, 2004 I watched most of it on-line as it was webcast thru SBC, and yes it was a cool concert !! Joe Walsh's song intro was... "This song is dedicated to anyone who has never had a song dedicated to them before." I hope they do make a dvd about the concert, lot of top names in one place. Thank You SBC !! Living' in the shadow, of someone else's dream.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djwayne Posted June 7, 2004 Share Posted June 7, 2004 I watched most of it on-line as it was webcast thru SBC, and yes it was a cool concert !! Joe Walsh's song intro was... "This song is dedicated to anyone who has never had a song dedicated to them before." I hope they do make a dvd about the concert, lot of top names in one place. Thank You SBC !! Living' in the shadow, of someone else's dream.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J J Posted June 7, 2004 Share Posted June 7, 2004 you must have had one interesting day You must have been pretty bummed out at the end though, that would fire me up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kendrix Posted June 7, 2004 Share Posted June 7, 2004 Wow what a day. Thanks for the summary. Im jonesing for a half of that at a venue near me. Did Jeff come out to play with BB? S. Gadd and D. Chambers are both killer. Chances are your concert going experiences peaked with this one. There arent too many opportunities to see a line-up like that these days. Check out some tunes here: http://www.garageband.com/artist/KenFava Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M Peasley Posted June 7, 2004 Author Share Posted June 7, 2004 So, what did each band play for like 5 minutes? All the sets were 30 minutes except for the last few - Santana was up 45 minutes or more, Clapton's solo set was probably an hour, ZZ went for maybe an hour. No Jeff Beck was only out there for the one solo number. I mean, did he fly from the U.K. just to do one song? Oh well, "I can't complain 'tho sometimes I still do". M Peasley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guruman Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 I was there too. Easily the best show I have ever witnessed. Bar none. Far and away. Joe Walsh had the best line of the night: It was 95ish, about 40,000 people in the stands, and Joe Walsh walks up there in a windbreaker and says "How y'all doin?" Crowd roars. Walsh: "I'm freezin!" ZZ top was better than I expected them to be. They played some low down blues before busting into some of the classics and did it well. In my opinion, Buddy Guy established himself as the best pure blues player of the night when they all jammed with BB, and John Mayer would probably come in second. After BB left the stage at the end of his set, Buddy Guy went to the mic and said something like "that was fun, but now I wanna play something funky. I'm talkin so funky you can smell it..." and then he just started laying it down. There was a point in his solo where he hit a note on the guitar and just held it. No vibrato, just held it. He kept holding it. And holding it. Someone brought him some water. He took a drink. Still holding it. He gave the water back. Still holding it. Kept holding it. Still holding that one note. Then BAM, back into the solo like he had never hit the note in the first place. That was the coolest thing that I have ever seen. Also noteworthy was the fact that everything sounded absolutely pristine all night. Great sound, great video, great camera direction, and true excellence in switching stages. The technical crew should pat themselves on the back after that one. They ran the whole show at a comfy 85 to 90 db. I had earplugs with me, but I didn't need to put them in until Santanna got onstage. I needed them for his set, and about three Clapton songs (Layla, Cocaine, etc) and that was it. Ouside of the Cotton Bowl in the rest of the fair park there were other exhibits. The guitar show was back at about half of the force that it had been here a month before. Nokia had a setup where people could use thier phones to make calls and laptops to hit the internet for free. Apple had a big chunk of floorspace deditcated to showing off Garage Band with the Mac G5s and iMacs everywhere. There were multiple stages inside where side acts played well mixed sets at reasonable volumes. And of course there was Eric Clapton's guitar museum. A true thing of beauty, the whole setup commanded a seperate entrance to the building, red carptes with black walls and sparse lighting, and security standing next to every single velvet-roped guitar. There were some legendary instruments there, and some of the price estimations went from $30,000 on up. The whole thing was a charity event to benefit Eric Clapton's Crossroads foundation. I paid sixty bucks for my ticket, but I would have paid three times that to witness what I did. Parking was around ten bucks, beer was five (budwieser and bud light), and sodas were three. I love living in Dallas. --------- -Guruman- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alndln Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 If only this show came to N.Y............. Originally posted by M Peasley: Jeff Beck came out (he was really the main reason we finally decided to go to the concert) and played Now That We've Ended As Lovers from his old fusion stuff. How does he manage to still look 40? What a guitar player to watch...my favorite of them all. Now I'm even more jealous. "A Robot Playing Trumpet Blows" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylen Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 Holy Bee-Jeesus ! What a great show & recap guys ! Maybe there's hope for music yet - I can hear all that in my head (yeah I know - personal problem, hehe) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guruman Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 Not a tour brutha. One shot show that was. --------- -Guruman- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M Peasley Posted June 8, 2004 Author Share Posted June 8, 2004 There was also stuff on Friday and Saturday before the big Sunday stadium blowout. The other nights had only 4,000 - 6,000 in attendance at the bigger events. Like Clapton jamming with JJ Cale on Cocaine and After Midnight - at another Clapton was in the audience for the show just any other guy - WITH NO SECURITY. On these other nights there was another long list of big names like Skunk Baxter, JJ Cale, Eric Johnson, STYX, and on and on and on. I think the musicians liked it even more than the crowd - lots of musical respect and comaraderie. But we made only the Sunday thing...I'm still resonating... M Peasley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylen Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 woah...I'm speechless. hehe I gotta get out of this little box I'm stuck in right now. I'm gettin tired of this - like when I gave away my ticket to the Simon & Garfunkel concert last fall cause I 'had' to finish a C++ class. Get me outta here ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Cole Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 ...I am floored. Beck, Gadd, Chambers, Vai, Cropper, Hidalgo, Gill, Clapton, King.... it's like ya died and went to heaven...... if only this tour came anywhere close to Montreal.... I would sacrifice my " fill in the blank " to see Beck.... There is no substitute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlChuck Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 Jeff Beck came out (he was really the main reason we finally decided to go to the concert) and played Now That We've Ended As Lovers Just a small correction, the title of that song is "Cause We've Ended As Lovers." It was written for Beck by Stevie Wonder and appears on Blow By Blow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M Peasley Posted June 8, 2004 Author Share Posted June 8, 2004 You're right - I wanted to listen to the tune when I got back, but I've got Blow By Blow (and Wired and Guitar Shop) only on vinyl up in the closet, and the old turntable is out for repair... M Peasley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M Peasley Posted June 8, 2004 Author Share Posted June 8, 2004 You're right - I wanted to listen to the tune when I got back, but I've got Blow By Blow (and Wired and Guitar Shop) only on vinyl up in the closet, and the old turntable is out for repair... M Peasley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M Peasley Posted June 8, 2004 Author Share Posted June 8, 2004 You're right - I wanted to listen to the tune when I got back, but I've got Blow By Blow (and Wired and Guitar Shop) only on vinyl up in the closet, and the old turntable is out for repair... M Peasley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M Peasley Posted June 8, 2004 Author Share Posted June 8, 2004 Arrrgghhh - sorry for the triple post.... M Peasley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outrider Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 Originally posted by M Peasley: But the crowd all came back for the crazy man himself, Joe Walsh. Still with Booker T backing up...he's the ultimate stadium crowd pleaser. Of course he wound up with Rocky Mountain High. Who'd-a thought Joe was such a big John Denver fan as to close with one of his songs? I know this was just a typo, but it made me smile. One of these days I'm gonna change my evil ways... one of these days... http://www.emotipad.com/emoticons/Band.gifhttp://www.weidenbach.net/images/storage/headbang.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M Peasley Posted June 8, 2004 Author Share Posted June 8, 2004 Oh man what a stupid mistake I made...yikes! Will Joe ever forgive me? M Peasley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abnorm Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 I was there all 3 days. WOW, as they say. On Friday, they had former Megadeth guitarist Cris Poland playing jazz/rock fusion. I'm a fusion nut, so I was totally into it and had never realized that he even played that kind of music. Then the national fingerpicking champion, Pete Huttlinger (I think ... don't have my notes with me), came out and was a total showman ... absolutely great. He played acoustic guitar cleaner than I've ever heard, and that includes classical guitar players. Then Laurence Juber played. You all know how good he is ... I'm always seeing posts about him here. Then came Doyle Dykes ... more great acoustic work! On Saturday, we watched Skunk Baxter jam with STYX. Then saw the Guitar Center Guitarmageddon finals: a bunch of Steve Vai wannabes until the last guy walks out with an ACOUSTIC! And he proceeds to smoke everybody! WTF? He's a STAR. He's Michael Kelsey from Indianapolis, and he apparently has a web site that I need to go check out. Then Eric Johnson comes out, but I leave before he plays a note to go to the Skunk Baxter clinic. I know ... I wanted to see Eric, but I've seen him live 7 times before, and it turns out I made a good decision. Skunk was great. He proceeds to explain via physics how music holds the universe together. Don't ask, you'd have to hear him. Then explained how to be a better guitarist. He mentioned a lot of things that I've seen on this forum. Things like playing chords with open E strings up and down the neck to sound more full. Things like singing a line and then trying to play it back on guitar ... he gave an excellent demonstration of this. Things like jamming in the relative minor of the song's key. The blues jam I heard on Saturday night from Buddy Guy was the sweetest. They say he's only ON about half the time you go see him. Well he was ON that night ... in fact he seemed giddy. Everything he said was hilarious, everything he sang was great, and every note he played was so pure. On Sunday, I most enjoyed the early part of the show, being a jazz nut. It started with a non-jazz guy, Neal Schon with American Idol's Randy Jackson on bass (wearing a Pink Floyd tour shirt). Schon is one of those "don't-know-when-to-end-a-song" guys, but it rocked. Then we got Steve Vai who I think did an outstanding set with Billy Sheehan on bass, of course. Then the great Larry Carlton who had a terrific horn section with him. He had the audience in the palm of his hand. Then came Pat Metheny who I thought played snooze jazz ... no offense to the previous poster who said he loved that set. Then came John McLaughlin with Dennis Chambers and Zakir Hussain. The previous poster got that right big time. It was like McLaughlin was there to back up the rhythm section! They smoked that much. The rest of the show was well covered by previous posters, but WOW again. What a weekend! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meccajay Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 Thats one hell of a Concert you went to!! Sounds like the show was the "Heaven" band, only there still alive. Buddy Guy always kicks major ass live. Him and Koko Taylor are 2 of the best blues shows Ive ever seen! TROLL . . . ish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Posted June 8, 2004 Share Posted June 8, 2004 Holy she-ite! I didn't think Beck did "Cause we ended as lovers" anymore live . At least, he hasn't the last few times I've seen him. I would have sold my left nut to seen this show! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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