What a treat to see all four of these incredible musicians play together at the Keswick Theatre. There was no way to know it at the time, but this would be the first time of at least sixty times (and still going…) that I would see Jeff Coffin play.
Another Thanksgiving show by Hot Tuna at the Keswick.
Below: Cover, 2001 schedule for Jorma’s Fur Peace camp.
I have a recollection of a nice Weather Report / Let it Grow, always great to hear again. Very much enjoyed the Ratdog shows throughout this era.
An eclectic and very fine performance by Joe Jackson and his band as configured at the time. I think the only other band that used a Cello in a rock concert I’ve seen was Psychedlic Furs. I had purchased the double CD compilation of his music and was digging deeper into some of the stuff I wasn't already familiar with. Many years later I found myself standing next to Joe while trying to order a drink at the bar of the Beacon Theatre during a Steely Dan show.
The year after I moved to the Philadelphia area, Mark Knoffler put out an album called "Sailing to Philadelphia," which seemed to be a huge coincidence. I mean, why would a British rock star be writing about Philadelphia, anyway? I learned only later that it was a reference to a novel about Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, the English surveyors who established the border that became known as the Mason-Dixon line, one separating the southern and northern portions of the United States.
Of course, I could’t help remembering the amazing 1983 Dead show when I attended shows like this at SPAC. These were some nice Ratdog setlists in this era, with Blackbird and whole bunch of Dead tunes. Ratdog’s set included Friend of the Devil, the same song I would see DMB would play there at SPAC with Bela Fleck on the weekend of the fare thee well concerts in Chicago.
I purchased a great Orchestra seat outside of the venue on the night of the show. A beautiful and classic performance by Bonnie. In those times it was usually fairly easy to find a good single ticket on the street before a Beacon show.
This was a free concert in the small park just below City Hall; it took place after work one evening. Unusual, for sure, with very little publicity.
The three named acts appeared separately. Amazing to see Joe Sample as always.
Another time I found a great single ticket on the street before a Beacon show. Even though there were lots of scalpers on the street you could usually do pretty well without paying too much, and I hit the jackpot big when I found this seat.
In the 80s, I grew to love Squeeze and all things Difford and Tilbrook, all things Paul Carrack, and all things Jules Holland.
At this point it seemed almost like a one-off rare Dead reunion. Everyone was excited and seemed pretty happy. Jimmy Herring is most excellent on guitar.... I loved seeing Dave Matthews later rave about Jimmy after his guest appearance with DMB in 2016. We sat behind the stage but it was pretty good all in all, and sound-wise.
Given how things played out in later years, it was kind of unusual for Tuna do do the Thanksgiving Beacon show in an acoustic configuration. That didn’t bother me at all. I enjoy all that Hot Tuna has done acoustic since their earliest days coming out from under Jefferson Airplane.
Another Bromberg show with his big band reconstituted, at Town Hall.
Another one of those rainy nights at Jones Beach that there seemed to be so many of …
In addition to playing with the Dead, Warren performed a nice acoustic set, which we enjoyed from some choice Orchestra seats for this show.
Above: My program from the Blue Note show.
As soon as I laid my eyes on the full-page notice for this special run of Bruce Hornsby shows in the Village Voice (a copy of the page is above), I decided I was going to all three of these shows.
The Halcyon Days album was out and for me represented a wonderful musical milestone for Hornsby and his great band, the Noisemakers. I was already a big fan (given my piano background, love of the Grateful Dead, and my experiences seeing Bruce play before. I had seen him with his own band a couple of times, but had seen him many times in the Grateful Dead, Further Festival and Other Ones contexts. And I had been lucky to meet him briefly and shake hands, on the first Further tour.
On the first night I was able to get tickets for the early show, and he performed with (saxophonist) Bill Evans as a guest.
This and other parts of the run are documented on a great DVD that was released later, “Three Nights on the Town.”
I sat at a table at the far side of the stage at The Blue Note, just about touching JT Thomas as he sat at his keyboards. On other nights as well as this one, Bruce nicely tied together so many of my musical interests, including my own study of music. (My own piano teacher over many years studied with some of the same music teachers as Bruce at the U of Miami music school.)
