Ok, I guess I'm the only one here who went to the Feb.1 [Thursday] show at the
Fillmore. There was no John Mayall, just the Soft Machine, then Albert and finally Jimi. It was a spectacular show!
The
Soft Machine opened the night with an improvisation that started out
slow and quiet and ended 45 minutes later with the Marshall's smoking
from overload [that's an exaggeration]. They were very cool.
Albert
came next and stole the audience by the third song. He received three
standing, screaming encores and after the third one he came out on
stage and said something about not being the headliner or the one that
most of us paid to see and that HE [Jimi] was standing in the wings and
getting pissed because it was way past the time for Jimi's set to
start. So Albert said, "please let me leave now" and then played a
little bit more for the audience and left the stage.
Jimi came
on then and played a couple of songs from the Experienced album and, he
did sort of look a little pissed. All of a sudden, he just walked off
the stage. A few minutes later he came back with a flying arrow guitar
like Albert's and gave us a look that seemed to say "So, you want to
hear the blues? Well, listen to this!" and he launched into a half set
of the smokiest blues I'd ever heard. Then he got his Strat again and
did the rest of his Experienced material and the whole Monterey Pop
thing; playing with his teeth, behind his back, over his head and
through his legs. Finally setting the Strat on fire.I guess he had
spares but, trashing those guitars always felt like a waste to me. At
least he didn't beat on the Marshall stacks like he did at Monterey.
Jimi got a couple of encores too and was fantastic but, IMO Albert
stole the first set.
For those of you who were too young to be
there, in those days the bands did two sets a night. I guess at most
venues it was so that the house could shoo the first show audience out
and sell another show but, Bill new better than to throw a bunch of
stoned hippies out onto Geary and Fillmore at 10pm and so, we got to
wait around and see the whole show again. Some bands probably didn't
realize that they were playing to the same audience again and would
actually do exactly the same show twice but, that didn't happen too
often but, it did happen once in a while.
Anyway, after
intermission, the Soft Machine came back on and did another 45 minute
improvisation [a different one, BTW] and then Albert and his band took
to the stage and were about ready to start when Jimi walked out and
suggested that they jam instead. Albert agreed and they played together
for the rest of the night along with Janis and a lot of other local
musicians. The rest of the night is a little fuzzy because I had
decided during the intermission to re-dose myself and it was coming on
strong by that time.
In retrospect, I speculate that Jimi didn't
want to see Albert steal the second show and headed that off at the
pass by jamming the night away instead.
I think that this is
the show that Albert is talking about on that great album that he did
jamming with SRV [In Session With Stevie Ray Vaughan]. I also think
that Jimi and Albert became great friends after that first Thursday
night gig. They both had a lot in common besides the left handed
restrung guitars. They both were the real deal...
I wish the Vault would release THAT concert.
It's my all time favorite Fillmore performance.
