Robben Ford Discussion

[roadwarriorfortheblues]

I arrived at the State Theatre way too early. It was 6:10 p.m. and sound check was going on inside. There were a couple other folks standing out front and I asked them, "how long has He been playing?" They said about 30 minutes. That's cool.

Now it's 7:10 p.m., and it sounds like the whole band is playing.... they sound great from out on the sidewalk! The sound check (a.k.a., the concert before the concert) finally ended about 8 p.m. and doors opened.

This was a great night of music

I will write about the concert later, but I want to share my photos first.

Click on the link and then click on the "Slideshow" button.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Roadwarriorfortheblues/EricJohnson

P.S. The last photo is titled, "He's hot!"
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Travelling by train of thought

[roadwarriorfortheblues]

Eric Johnson ~ State Theatre, St. Petersburg 1/12/07

The State Theatre doesn't book many acts the caliber of Eric Johnson. The place is a musty-smelling dump that's located in a run down part of Downtown St. Petersburg. All the seating on the floor has been removed for a standing crowd. There's still theater-style seating in the balcony upstairs.

I was happy to find some other EJ fans hanging out in front of the State Theatre when I arrived. Doors were advertised to open at 7 p.m. on the State's website. A lot of people got there early because it was a general admission show. As the crowd began to form on the sidewalk, loud music oozed from the theatre. It was Eric Johnson and the band warming up.

By showtime, the theater was packed. Mato Nanji, the guitarist from the band Indigenous, opened the show with some Blues and stripped down Indigenous songs on a 12-string acoustic Guild. He's got a percussive strum and the guitar had 7 or 8 strings by the end of the set.

Eric Johnson, bassist Roscoe Beck and drummer Tommy Taylor walked on stage at about 10 p.m. and lead off with a fiery instrumental featuring a bass solo, Zap. The next songs went by in a blur -- My Back Pages, Trademark, a new song I think he called Gray at Noon, Manhattan, Dear Prudence, Running Shoes, Austin, a Hendrix tune, a fast country western tune, and Columbia, EJ's soaring tribute to the astronauts. Every song was great !!!

Eric played beautiful arrangements of Bob Dylan's My Back Pages (which was released on his latest CD, "Bloom") and the Beatles' song, Dear Prudence. When he introduced Dear Prudence, Eric joked that he didn't know all the words yet, and asked the crowd to sing along. His playing and vocals were awesome !!

The show ended with multiple encores. One of the closing tunes was an old James Brown song called I Go Crazy. This song appears on Brown's 1960 release, Think!, and it's a song that Robben Ford and the Blue Line have played in concert (but never released). Tommy Taylor did a great job on the vocals!

Tommy's drum set took up a hugh footprint on the stage. He was wedged in between large amps on both sides. I wasn't able to get any pictures of Tommy, but there was great "energy" (and a good photo op) when Eric and Roscoe met in a center stage face-off during two songs. These guys were hot !!! Please check out my photos to see just how hot.

I read somewhere that this tour was named Return of Big Texans from Outer Space because this was the trio's first tour together since their "Big Texans from Outer Space" tour in support of Eric's 1986 release, "Tones".
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Travelling by train of thought