Seeing a legend perform in a small venue?

[GovernorSilver]

Thanks to the smooth jazz thread, I just remembered that I saw Keiko Matsui and her band play near, I think, the fountain at Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego.    

 

The guitarist was none other than Grant Geissman of "Feels So Good" fame.

[David Emm]

7 hours ago, jerrythek said:

I saw Jarrett twice at the Village Vanguard: first with the European Quartet, and then later during the first public appearance of the Standards Trio. Those were pretty amazing occurrences, being in such a small room.

 

Saw George Duke at the Blue Note, sat right at the top end of his Rhodes... Very special.

 

Jerry

 

 

We're in a similar, fortunate group. I went to see George, Stanley Clarke and Billy Cobham do a turn as a trio in a classic smokey basement club. I was especially pleased, because I had just come cross Stanley's solo LP "Journey To Love." I chose a corner seat looking right up George's nose. What a fine lesson in how to wring out a Rhodes, Odyssey and Minimoog, mmm mm. 

[jerrythek]

Wow, David, that's a show for the ages.

 

 

2 hours ago, David Emm said:

 

We're in a similar, fortunate group. I went to see George, Stanley Clarke and Billy Cobham do a turn as a trio in a classic smokey basement club. I was especially pleased, because I had just come cross Stanley's solo LP "Journey To Love." I chose a corner seat looking right up George's nose. What a fine lesson in how to wring out a Rhodes, Odyssey and Minimoog, mmm mm. 

 

[skipeb3]

In 2004 I did a gig with Johnny Tillotson at a benefit for cancer research here in LA at the Skirball Center. A small room, maybe 100 people, tops. 

We were the opener, and the headliner was Ray Charles. Just him and a rhythm section... guitar, bass & drums. No horns, no Raylettes. Very cozy & intimate.

This was only a couple months before he passed, and you could hear the weakness in his voice, but he still sounded awesome. I'd seen him a few times before, but this was the best setting. Well, except for the fact that he was very sick. 

He played a Kurzweil 1000PX with a KX88, btw.

 

I agree with D.Gauss... HSS wins.

[Tom Williams]

Blood Sweat and Tears, 1976, Holiday House in Pittsburgh.

 

I was 16, and we drove two hours (each way) on a high school double-date.  Upon arrival, I learned that Holiday House was in fact a bar, and they didn't want to let me or my (14 year old) date in.  I negotiated my brains out to get in; I explained I had been playing in bars for a year already, and I didn't drink.  We just wanted to see BS&T.  Fortunately, the other girl was 18 and promised to take responsibility.  They relented.  We behaved.

 

I had expected to hear Lew Soloff and Bobby Colomby.  It turned out that it was David Clayton-Thomas and whoever was accompanying him at the time.  The end result was okay, but it clearly lacked the energy they had had in previous years.

[TommyRude]

14 hours ago, Stokely said:

Not that King's X are "legends" but they have always been one of my favorite bands. 

Yes, they are legends

[Piktor]

Edgar Winter with Rick Derringer and his band:

I think that it was the early 1990s? Winter had been booked to play at a conference center in town and that gig fell through. Given the time period, it might have been due to low ticket sales. A local young and inexperienced (want to be?) promoter picked up the date and booked the band into Andantes, a small, but cool local club. I don't know how he expected to make enough money from ticket sales, as the club was pretty small. It just so happened that my band had already been booked into the club for a three-nighter, so the club owner arranged for us to be the opener on that Saturday night. We had played a lot of original music in this club and had performed there many times. The business was clearly the owner's labor of love, as he did much of the renovations himself and the club sort of just scraped by during its whole existence. The owner was a musician himself and he lived in a loft apartment just above the club. 

 

After the Friday gig, we struck our gear, knowing that Winter's band would be coming in to sound check late the next afternoon. After the check we were expected to quickly reassemble in time to perform an hour before the headliner took the stage. Winter's folks showed up as expected and got a load of the severely underwhelming house p.a. system and demanded some necessary upgrades. The next few hours were taken up with a newb promoter contacting a sound system company, gear piling in, a very long sound system set-up, musicians sound checking, etc. In the meantime, people who had purchased tickets waited outside the club for literally hours and hours, well past the announced door opening time and well past our intended opening slot time. Understandably, patrons were getting more agitated. All this time, none of us saw Winter and Derringer make an appearance. They were still waited in the tour bus parked outside of this dinky club. Because this affair was turning into a sh*t show, the club owner suggested to us that it was in our best interests that we load our waiting gear into our vehicles and NOT perform.  We agreed.

 

Normally the club's green room was the dingy basement accessible from a set of stairs at the back of the stage, but for this gig the club owner agreed to turn his loft apartment into the green room. After securing our gear in our vans, the band headed to the green room where I am pretty sure that we finished off most of the food and beer that had been laid out before the headliner got there.  (Sorry EW.) FINALLY, a bit before midnight, the green room door opened and in walked  Edgar Winter.  None of us wanted to bother him, so we took our beers and made our way downstairs to the club to find a place to watch the show. Now, this place was packed well beyond capacity. Clearly, the crowd was ready for something...anything, so when the band hit the stage, it seemed that all was forgiven.  It certainly helped that the band and Winter and Derringer were nothing short of awesome.  They performed like they were playing for thousands. I was sorry that such a relatively small number were witnessing this show, but it was one of the best live shows that I have ever seen. 

 

I don't think that my band was ever paid for our hours and hours of time that night (another "got paid in sandwiches and beer" gig*), but the sum experience made up for everything. 

 

* Which is a lot better than the time an advocacy group paid us in butter. Sheesh, if you can't organize a fund raising event, how are you ever going to stop nuclear proliferation? 😄  

[TommyRude]

Early version of Guns & Roses, around 1984-5, at the Troubador in L.A., in front of about 10 people.  They did a version of Blue Suede Shoes with Axl screaming at the top of his lungs.

[mauriziodececco]

We (me and my wife) intentionally bought a flat within 15 minutes (walking) from our preferred Venue in Paris/France, the New Morning.

 

You can seat at a small table, within a few meters from the musicians; from memory, we saw there: John Lurie's Lounge Lizard, his brother Evan Lurie, Pat Metheney, Dino Saluzzi, John McLaughlin and Shakti, Mike Stern, Roy Haynes, Joe Zawinul, Archie Sheep and other. I hope they'll have a subscription ticket when i retire :).

 

An another even more "legend" was Dizzi Gillespie in a small venue in Viareggio in Italy, in the 80 s :).

 

Maurizio

[elif]

I saw Joey DeFrancsco with Byron Landham, Jake Langley as the only performers for an event sponsored by a regional jazz society.  This was in Ft. Pierce, FL and there were about 15 people there.  Joey came out and said something like  "Kind of a smallish crowd, but we're going to play like there are 10,000 of you."   They all played great.

[drawback]

Now that I’ve read some posts going way, way back, I do recall seeing Lenny Breau at George’s Spaghetti House and Dizzy Gillespie at the Coq d’Or Tavern in Toronto 1970-71. Ringside tables both times. 

[allan_evett]

I saw Charles Earland at the Green Mill in Chicago, late 1996.  He was part of a 'Battle of the B's' evening, sharing the bill with Chicago legend Chris Foreman. 

What a night!  There were at least three Leslies on stage, and the wash of amazing sounds in the space was a thing of beauty.

[deetee]

I’ve been lucky enough to see Booker T a couple of times and James Taylor Quartet at Ronnie Scott’s. Got to meet them after the show and Booker T even signed a setlist for me (now framed). Here’s a couple of photos from when we had front row seats so basically sat next to the band!

 

[Docbop]

The first record as a kid I went crazy for it there was a jukebox anywhere I was at I had to play repeatedly was Green Onions by Booker T. & the MGs.   Still love that song and all the old Stax/Volt records. 

[GovernorSilver]

Sam Rivers and Evan Parker at one of the smaller venues in St. Petersburg FL   Might have been this one:

 

https://ink19.com/2001/04/magazine/event-reviews/evan-parker

[Shamanzarek]

I wasn't yet into Rock music but in 1963 I saw The Kingsmen at our local supermarket in Salem, OR. I was with a couple of friends and we walked in and there they were just inside the door by the produce section. I know it was The Kingsmen because they wore matching blazers with the name of the band embroidered on the pocket. I found out in an interview many years later that they had a connection to a Northwest grocers association and played at grocery stores all over the Pacific Northwest. Maybe this is what inspired them to write "Jolly Green Giant".

[dazzjazz]

I saw Ray Charles at the Blue Note NYC and I was right up front. My jaw ached for days after smiling and laughing hard for two hours. Then I got to meet him upstairs by the goofy trinket shop and shake his hand!

 

Very good memories!

[Ed A.]

I saw Keith Emerson, Jean-Luc Ponty, Jan Hammer, Captain Beefhart, Brian Auger, Daniel Lanois, and Jeff Lorber at Toad's Place in New Haven, CT.

 

I saw Steve Hackett, Adrian Belew, Howard Jones, Cowboy Junkies, Yo La Tengo, and Chick Corea with Steve Gadd at Fairfield Theatre Company (FTC), Fairfield, CT.

 

Both places are smaller venues where you can get right up next to the stage. I was standing about 10 ft. from Keith Emerson while he was playing the solo for Lucky Man on his modular Moog at Toad's Place.

[Polychrest]

I saw Keith Emerson and the Nice, The Who and the Rolling Stones in small Toronto venues half a century ago.  Described here:

https://forums.musicplayer.com/topic/178590-your-biggest-concert-memories/?do=findComment&comment=2843629

 

Around the same time, I saw cool shows by major talents like Bruce Cockburn, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells at the Night Owl and Riverboat in Toronto's Yorkville club district.  I saw Daniel Lanois play rhythm guitar for Ray Materick at the Riverboat in the early '70s.  (David Wipper played lead, IIRC.)  I'm told I was at Charlie Brown's when John Kay and The Sparrow (soon to become Steppenwolf) played there, but teenage drug abuse at the time has fogged the memory.

 

I do remember standing outside the Colonial Tavern in the rain on a steamy summer night listening to Jimmy Smith through the open doors after a bouncer refused to let us in because we were underage.  (The drinking age in Ontario was 21 at the time.)  We lasted about ten minutes, but I can still say I heard Jimmy Smith live. 

 

A few years later, I surfed a bunch of small-club shows by some now-legendary Toronto punk bands:  The Viletones, Teenage Head, the Diodes, the Dead Boys from New York, all at The Crash and Burn.  It was the genesis of a new musical and generational centre of gravity, long on symbolism and message, short on actual chops.  Later, I saw The Ramones at the El Mocambo--a great tight show, unlike most of their contemporaries. 

[GovernorSilver]

Damn!  Should have gone to 55 Bar last time I was in NYC.  Just saw this post from Antonio Sanchez:

 

As some of you might have already heard, the The 55 Bar is closing its doors tonight.

To be honest, this still hasn’t sunk in for me. It’s hard to believe that it might actually be gone in a matter of hours but I still feel the need to pay my respects as it has been a musical home for me and for so many others for countless years.

When I arrived in NYC in ‘99, I was lucky enough to meet Queva (the owner at that time) who was an amazing woman with a beautiful, warm aura. Her and the perennial staff were the culprits for so much great music that went on in New York City for decades. After Queva’s untimely passing, Scott, her son took over and kept the doors open and the music going.

Musicians of all walks of life were welcome, as long as you had something interesting to say. All kinds of genres, bands, jams and characters passed through those dark, wooden, musty walls.

Like many others, (Thana also being one of them) I had my first ever NY band leading gig at the 55. I felt nervous, comfortable, stressed and at ease all at the same time because the 55 made you feel at home, but you never knew what you could encounter.

The gear was always “sort” of working: The old PA, the countless Fender Rhodes that came and went through the years, the malfunctioning lights, the raggedy cables, the lipstick stained mics and the beat up drums could play tricks on you at exactly the same time as you were trying to perform some hard ass music, reading some complicated chart or avoiding bumping into an audience member trying to get to the old bathrooms in the back… so you were constantly on your toes. You had to adapt to whatever you might be faced with in the moment. That, in essence, is one of the most valuable skills a musician can acquire, and the 55 was the perfect place to learn it.

Whoever has played there can tell you that it’s not an easy room to play. The drums can sound like buckets from the vantage point of the drum chair. Anything bigger than a trio or quartet was pushing the limits of physics on the precious real estate area of that “stage”. The audience was always so close that it could be intimidating to see all those faces or daunting and depressing when there weren’t enough faces to see by the sometimes empty chairs.

[drawback]

I saw The Who on that same tour when they stormed through the prairies. I recall they did play Pinball Wizard & Shakin' All Over which was pretty different for them, at the time. Wrecked their gear after My Generation. All the stuff. I think it was just before or after Woodstock. Same outfits. Keith Moon got them banned from CN Hotels after trashing his room.

[harmonizer]

On 5/24/2022 at 1:06 PM, Mills Dude said:

......  80s-90s - McCoy Tyner so many times at different NYC venues.  He played pretty regularly at Sweet Basil's in the village.....

I also saw McCoy Tyner at Sweet Basil's a couple of times, and saw Antonio Hart there once. Sweet Basil's was my favorite NYC jazz venue while it was open.

 

I saw Manhattan Transfer do a show at The Blue Note in 1991. It was just the 4 of them and an upright bass player. To see such incredible vocal chops so close - OMG. It was a "special" show with a higher price than most shows back then - $75 per person. At the end of the first song I felt I had already gotten my money's worth.

 

I saw Jon Hendricks at The Blue Note in 1996, and sitting directly in front, about 10 away from him.

[NewImprov]

There's a venue in Eugene called the WOW Hall, I think it holds 3-400 at most. Have seen many amazing shows there. I was at a show there with the (post-Marley) Wailers in the early '90's. They showed up for the gig and were disappointed in the hall, and almost didn't play, but the crowd and vibe were so great they played an extra 2 hours! Remains one of the greatest Reggae shows I've ever witnessed. Other memorable shows there: The Melvins with Jello Biafra, Sonny Sharrock band, Bill Frisell, Mutabaruka, Airto and Flora, etc. I missed a now legendary Sun Ra Arkestra show there in the late '80's when they just showed up, unannounced and demanded to play, it was a week night, and there was nothing booked, so they played. A relatively disreputable friend of mine called to tell me the show was happening, but I didn't believe him, and stayed home. That show has achieved somewhat mythical status among NW Ra-heads.

 

Saw metal band Morbid Angel at the Satyricon, a relatively tiny but infamous punk club in Portland, they were touring opening for Iron Maiden (I think) and filling in open dates at smaller venues, it was an astounding show. 

 

Evan Parker trio in a small club in Vancouver BC.

Zakir Hussain at a church in Portland, I sat on the floor about 15 feet from him.

NYC trio Harriet Tubman (not well known, but all the individual players are famous jazz sidemen, Brandon Ross (gtr), Melvin Giibs (bass), JT Lewis (drums) with about 20 other people at a small club in Portland, an absolutely mind-blowing show with killer sound, it was one of the last shows I saw before the Pandemic hit.

 

 

 

[marino]

Allan Holdsworth with various trios, and Scott Henderson with Tribal Tech, three times each at the Big Mama here in Rome, along several years. A small venue, absolutely packed every time, and all great concerts - except maybe the latest one from Tribal Tech, when they used to improvise the whole concert - no themes, nothing set in advance. After a while, it got a bit too abstract...

Btw, at the second Tribal Tech concert, everybody was expecting to see Kirk Covington on drums, but a petite girl sat at the drumset instead. She was Hilary Jones, and she played great and almost as powerfully as Kirk.

 

The Music Inn was also an historical jazz place. The list of the great musicians that I saw there is endless.

 

One of the best concert in small venues of my entire life: Pianist/keyboardist Otmaro Ruiz, in a small Roman club dedicated to Latin music. Bob Sheppard was on sax, plus a great drummer and bass player (whose names I know, but I can't recall for the life of me right now...)

Otmaro is an absolutely stunning musician, and a sweet and friendly guy. I can testify it, because at the time, I worked as assistant/translator for his teaching meetings. Not a "legend" probably - but he should be.

 

In 1999, I visited Los Angeles for the first time. Among the many great events that I attended with my friends, a concert by Frank Gambale with his quartet, in a really tiny club of which I can't remember the name. Frank was stellar as usual, and after the concert my friend Beppe introduced him to me. We chatted quite a bit, and before saying goodbye I felt confident enough to give him one of my records.

Frank seemed to like it and sent me an email. So we kept in contact, and in 2008, when he came to Rome to give a masterclass, we recorded a few songs together.

 

Several funny things happened during my stay in Tokyo in 1987. There, the music clubs are usually very small, and often they aren't placed at ground floor. Once, a friend and I entered one of there places, where a Japanese jazz group was announced, and we were greeted by EDDIE GOMEZ, who hugged us, and offered us drinks! Frankly, he looked like he had a few already... Later that night, Terry Lyne Carrington showed up in similar conditions...

 

Another time, we were jamming at one of those small clubs with some japanese musicians, when a couple of guys from the Miles Davis band entered the place and started to jam with us! They were Darryl Jones and Mino Cinelu (IIRC - I was a bit devasted myself that night. Ahem.)

Miles was in the Japanese branch of his tour at that time, and another funny episode was that Darryl Jones met by chance the sax player from my band in a Tokyo street, and mistook him for Michael Brecker! My friend was carrying a tenor sax case - and here too, some alchol was probably involved...

 

Oops, sorry. I was carried away a bit.

 

[Doerfler]

3 hours ago, marino said:

and here too, some alchol was probably involved...

 

[Al Quinn]

Mulgrew Miller at Small’s in NYC. I sat four or five feet from his right hand for the entire set. The best piano lesson I ever had! And the nicest guy too. My wife took this pic of us.
 

[CowboyNQ]

This is “Dragon”.

 

YouTube link.

 

I include the link to give you a sense of their popularity in their pomp as non-Australians will likely not have heard of them.  This video shows them playing to a packed Sydney Entertainment Centre in 1984.

 

About three years ago Dragon played in the sports bar of a pub near me.  Approximately 50 people bought tickets.  They only had one original member left but the “new guys” had all been in the band for close to 15 years.

 

It was a very strange experience to watch Dragon in this context.

[Steve Nathan]

Well, I've seen many in small venues, but considering his revered status on this forum, I'll just mention that I saw The Nice in Alliotta's Lounge in Buffalo.  To be honest, I was way more moved seeing Steve Gadd with The Brass Buttons in the same club.

[George88]

On 5/24/2022 at 1:50 PM, drawback said:

In 1995 Northwest Air was promoting non-stop flights in our city, so they picked up the remainder of Ringo Starr's All Star Band shows in Canada. If I recall the rumours correctly, Ringo pulled out but the rest of the band took the gig anyway. Billy Preston, Felix Cavaliere, John Entwistle, Mark Farner, Randy Bachman and Mark Rivera, Liberty DeVitto. The gig was so poorly promoted that they only sold maybe 100 tickets in a 2200 seat soft-seater, so they moved the gig to a small club in the warehouse district and we got front-table seats, 15-20 feet from a 1' riser stage. Of course, my heroes were Billy & Felix, but it was cool to see Liberty bash away, and appreciate every player as a very competent covers-sideman. Meet 'n' greet with the band in the bar upstairs after the show was icing on the cake.

I was friends with the FOH engineer of that tour. I got to walk backstage while the band was readying to go on, Ringo included. I nearly vomited from disbelief as we hurried through the group of them to our seats.

[re Pete]

Art Blakey and the jazz messengers when Bobby Watson and James Williams was with him. Talked to him couple times between sets in of all places the bathroom. He liked to drink while playing. Thing I remember most about him is at the end of sets, he told the audience 'without you, we are nothing'. Don't hear that these days.

 

Bill Evans a year before he died. Said hello to him. Nice guy. Surprised he was so tall. He apologized to the audience for the piano being out of tune. He didn't seem happy about it, but it sounded ok to me except for a few notes. The spot had an upstairs level so I was looking down watching his hands. His hands worked so well together. 

 

Brian Auger. Really glad to hear him with his family band. Talking to him was really pleasant. Super nice guy.