Joined: 29 Jan 2004 Posts: 1504 Location: Methuen, MA
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 6:09 am Post subject: Re: chicago date
maxima wrote:
my husband and I will be at hob chgo.... how will I know its you??
One of my better photos of the night is the picture of Robben and me, which I'll post. And, since my wife and I are staying at the HOB Hotel, we have the special priviledge of getting into the HOB a half-hour before doors open to the general public, which I will be taking advantage of to get a prime seat front & center.
I'll see if I can get it together and post all of my photos today. As I was looking them over, they're all either very dark or very blurry. The dark ones I can lighten-up enough to make them viewable, but Microsoft hasn't yet invented the software to straighten-out blurry images. The stage was fairly dark with the most light coming from the rock wall background with ever-changing psychedelic images projected on it. Even when the spotlight sporadically shown, the lighting wasn't photo-friendly, especially since I was shooting sans flash 95% of the time. Even my few flash photos are dark...
Joined: 29 Jan 2004 Posts: 1504 Location: Methuen, MA
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 6:21 am Post subject: Re: Johnny Z.....THANK YOU!
elizabeth wrote:
Zounds like you had a fabulouz experienze, Johnny. Can't wait to see your photoz!
D'oh! How could I possibly forget about the obligatory fashion report, especially since I struggled all night long trying to figure out the true colors of Robben's apparel which seemed to change with the colored lights...
Anyway, Robben was in simple, casual mode- gray t-shirt, black jeans, & black boots.
Joined: 08 Aug 2003 Posts: 943 Location: Terra Firma, Ether Sea
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 7:43 am Post subject:
Gregg's Lighting Director, & other's in the crew, have told me that Gregg has a very big thing about NOT liking to be lit up. 'Pappy' (our LD) says he has to be very careful even about how he lights up the other player's near Gregg & that Gregg will start giving him the 'evil eye' if he even thinks about using a spotlight on him.
Which logically leads to the fact that, so I am told, he, like Robben, HATES flash photography and that many of his fans, as with many of Robben's, prefer to ignore this and stand right in front of him firing off a strobe light of succsessive flashes.
What IS a poor blinded entertainer to do?!?!? _________________ B C-ing U!
( }:-Daved
"This boy's diseased with rhythm!" -Bing Crosby (Road To Rio, '49)
Last edited by Daved on Tue Jan 25, 2005 8:10 am; edited 2 times in total
Joined: 08 Aug 2003 Posts: 943 Location: Terra Firma, Ether Sea
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 8:01 am Post subject:
Daved wrote:
Gregg's Lighting Director, & other's in the crew, have told me that Gregg has a very big thing about NOT liking to be lit up. 'Pappy' (our LD) says he has to be very careful even about how he lights up the other player's near Gregg & that Gregg will start giving him the 'evil eye' if he even thinks about using a spotlight on him.
Which logically leads to the fact that, so I am told, he, like Robben, HATES flash photography and that many of his fans, as with many of Robben's, prefer to ignore this and stand right in front of him firing off a strobe light of succsessive flashes.
What IS a poor blinded entertainer to do?!?!?
And, while I'm on the subject, let me mention that I am also told by his crew & management, that Gregg (again like Robben) HATES unauthorized video recording. We in the crew shared our tales of the many fans that continually try to ignore this, playing distracting and irritating games with us when we try to get them to put away their recorders, when we could, and SHOULD, instead be concentrating on our actual jobs of running an efficient and high quality show. _________________ B C-ing U!
( }:-Daved
"This boy's diseased with rhythm!" -Bing Crosby (Road To Rio, '49)
Wow, what a great experience and story.Thanks so much for relating it.I can only imagine after all the preparation and anticipation,standing there waiting for the show to begin and they bust out with Whipping Post with Robben on guitar! The stuff dreams are made of.
And while i'm at it, a BIG thanks to you Daved.Your little peeks and reports make this board ultra special.
J
I was pretty out of it, as I was on a plane for a long ride before getting off and going straight to the show (i was on my way through NY anyway), so I don't have set list other than to mention all the obvious stuff that GA usually does: Melissa, Midnight Rider, the slow version of Whippin' Post, I'm No Angel, a couple of old Chicago style tunes that Floyd sang with a Muddy interpretation.
Robben sang a little backup, and stood next to Gregg's organ all night. Really nice horn section (baritone, tenor and trumpet) but they only got a couple solos.
Robben used the goldtop on about 3 tunes, and the LP for the rest. Standard dumble rig, but definitely volume "controlled", which was interesting, because he was still getting the usual great tone at about half his normal volume. For the second set, I got a seat in the sweet spot about 25 - 30 feet straight back from the Dumble, but still could hear everyone else. Ears weren't even ringing at all without earplugs!
Venue was really nice, if you had a seat, but lousy for the standing room crowd. Looks like it holds about 500 people, with the stage on the long side of the room, and bar facing it.
First set was 75 mins, and honestly a little lackluster, even though it was sold out. They just never really took off. Could have had something to do with the house sound, as there was a lot of tweaking going on. No major issues, just not dialed in.
Then - they came back for the second set at 10:00, and Robben was cutting loose big time from note 1 on! I was right in the sweet spot of the room for that set, and the room was only about half full. They played for 2 hours straight through, and just totally kicked ass. The rythym section was just fat and tight and funky, and Gregg was definitely watching Robben with raised eyebrows on a few occasions.
He did a Lovin Cup barnburner type of solo on one of Gregg's newer tunes that I didn't recognize, and it was astounding.
Right after that, they brought Warren Haynes up for 1 tune, and he did his slide thing in standard tuning with Robben palying rythym the whole song. Very cool tune, and Robben's backup playing was right on it. Warren had a great tone, looks like he is no longer using soldano, but I couldn't really see his rig.
Oh, and Robben apparently is not playing any slide on the allman tunes, but used outrageous volume swells with the pedal on tunes like Melissa and Midnight Rider, with Gregg playing acoustic. Great interplay between the two of them, with Robben totally complementing the songs with the melody, and the guitars were mixed just right so you could hear all of allman's fingerpicking.
That's all I remember, except for mumbling something pretty incoherent at Robben when I stopped by to thank him for the show, as I was so out of it by then. He was his usual gracious self in talking to the folks that wanted to say hi...
All in all, a great experience Imo. _________________ - Mayer
Joined: 17 Jul 2003 Posts: 908 Location: Tampa Bay, FL
Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 5:24 am Post subject: Mayer's Review Rocks !
Thanks Mayer
I LOVED reading your review!
Robben cutting loose... a thrilling two-hour set... and special guest appearance by Warren Haynes ! This is the stuff dreams are made of:
mayer wrote:
Robben was cutting loose big time from note 1 on! ... They played for 2 hours straight through, and just totally kicked ass. The rythym section was just fat and tight and funky, and Gregg was definitely watching Robben with raised eyebrows on a few occasions.
He did a Lovin Cup barnburner type of solo on one of Gregg's newer tunes that I didn't recognize, and it was astounding.
Right after that, they brought Warren Haynes up for 1 tune, and he did his slide thing in standard tuning with Robben palying rythym the whole song. Very cool tune, and Robben's backup playing was right on it.
Great interplay between the two of them, with Robben totally complementing the songs with the melody, and the guitars were mixed just right so you could hear all of allman's fingerpicking.
I am going bonkers !! I can't wait for the Florida shows !!! _________________ Travelling by train of thought
Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Posts: 26 Location: NEW YORK,NEW YORK
Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:02 am Post subject: I was at the 10PM show wednesday night in 5 degree weather!
well here it goes...show was very cool...intresting..as mayer said guitars and rigs pretty standard,nice to see RF with the LP's the histoic blew the gold top away at my show...the gold top was muddy however coll...is robben using a BIG MUFF in the rig LOL...
They played to a full house for an 1hr 45 ...it went real fast,old standards in order with melissa,midnight rambler,states,im no angle(one of the best of the show)floyde belting out a couple of southern blues porch tunes....looking at greg admire RF was something ...I thought it should have been billed Robben Ford and Friends with Greg Allman...no disrespect, fact! after seeing RF at BB's a few times it looked like his crowd plus a few real BIG gals who took up most of bar room and drank booze like pirates ..the ugliest crowd I ever saw at any venue in my life time ....Gregs fans did not take the road less traveled! it was like a sene from movie shallow hal....ok more positives
Rf's playing was excellent as always ...(altered cords broken leads ..ripping solos....RF looked like a young kid from CA. that won a contest to play lead guitar with an old master...it was cool and RF did it to the tee...rest of the band was excellent as well...horn section I loved ...
elizebeth ...dress....RF in a steel blue t-shirt ,wangler demin,brownish cowboy boots justins? (I guess he left his hos cartwright 10 gal in ojai)
but he dressed in the southern rock or nascar style <) ...i had cowboy boots on as well....same pair i wore to the allman bros in 79 front row at the caledorone concert hall in hemstead n.y. some 26 years ago,and i must say they held up better then GA...Is he 60 yet? RF 55???
All in All , I enjoyed the show ...loved the B3 and GA's raspy voice...and to see RF signal to GA to take a solo was great....make no mistake they were having fun.....which is life dream! NY NY named it twice 'cause the people so nice...
Joined: 16 Jul 2003 Posts: 534 Location: SF Bay area
Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 9:14 pm Post subject: You guys are breaking my heart!!!!
How I adore reading your reviews, but isn't it a shame that boozing pirates get to be in the audience? Do pirates drink that much??? I thought they just said, "Arrrgggghhh" a lot.
Thank you for your posts...I can only hope that Ford and Friends (GA and anyone else he invites) will come back to California...particularly the Bay area.
Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Posts: 26 Location: NEW YORK,NEW YORK
Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 7:47 am Post subject:
Elizebeth,
the Allman' Bros get that NASCAR crowd...I love the Bay area...much different crowds then the east coast...and yes Big Girls pounding scotch chasin with water...there ws one guy carried out because he passed out at one of the center tables...they should have had a contest after the show to see how many women could fit into RF's Wranglers(ala Ada, Ok.)..........Answer...NONE! Big Crowd
All in All it may have been a better show to see RF with Cher...I think that will be next....RF is out right now looking for a cool pair of sasoons..LOL
... but after reading about the scurvy crowd Bigdoins encountered, i've decided to save my booty for the MOFRO show tonight. _________________ Travelling by train of thought
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The stage was fairly dark with the most light coming from the rock wall background with ever-changing psychedelic images projected on it. Even when the spotlight sporadically shown, the lighting wasn't photo-friendly, especially since I was shooting sans flash 95% of the time. Even my few flash photos are dark...
This is the stuff dreams are made of:
...I thought it should have been billed Robben Ford and Friends with Greg Allman...no disrespect, fact! after seeing RF at BB's a few times it looked like his crowd plus a few real BIG gals who took up most of bar room and drank booze like pirates 
..the ugliest crowd I ever saw at any venue in my life time 
...
NY NY named it twice 'cause the people so nice...
