Big Head Todd and the Monsters, June 8, 2024, Red Rocks, Morrison.
Tim Van Schmidt
After 39 years as a band, there’s still a good dose of heavy blues in the music of Big Head Todd and the Monsters.
At Red Rocks on June 8, one of the mightiest tunes of the evening – and the one that had the crowd howling the most – was BHTATM’s “Boom Boom”, a roiling rockin’ blues number based on the lyrics by John Lee Hooker. Everybody was involved, from shouting out “boom, boom, boom, boom” to countering with “bang, bang, bang, bang” and then going nuts when guitarist Todd Park Mohr let loose on his guitar.
Todd Park Mohr 2024 Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
Blues is only a part of the band’s music, which has more than a touch of soul in it – here, think “Bittersweet.” Or then there’s just the magnificent, showstopping power of rock anthem “Circle.” Still, blues is in there.
I remember back in the 1980s when BHTATM was still a struggling regional band, playing the old Washington’s for free.
I then started covering the band in the local press, reviewing an early record release available only on cassette at the time, and met up with Mohr in the back hallway of the Old Town Ale House (now Lucky Joe’s). He said something interesting at the time, telling me that places like the Ale House were just too small for them. I thought that was pretty arrogant at the time, but the next time I saw the band, they were playing to a full house at Fort Ram – and they haven’t looked back since.
Flash forward to 2024, and BHTATM are playing to a packed house at Red Rocks, a venue they have played more than 20 times over the years. And it was like a gathering of old friends – a rocking gathering.
Jakob Dylan 2024 Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
Even opening act, The Wallflowers, featuring Jakob Dylan, put out an energetic set at Red Rocks. After seeing them last year at Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder – a set plagued by interruptions and kind of a lousy attitude – I wondered how that was going to go. But The Wallflowers apparently were willing to step up at Red Rocks and make the best use of their time.
What a night at Red Rocks. You can’t really get more Colorado than that – one of Colorado’s most successful bands ever at one of the world’s finest concert venues nestled in the hills above Denver. And there it was, “boom, boom, boom, boom” echoing up the rocks, underscored by snarling guitar. A perfect live music night.
Marcia Ball and CJ Chenier, February 29, 2024, The Armory, Fort Collins.
Tim Van Schmidt
At first I didn’t really get it.
I went to the Armory to see Marcia Ball – one of my personal favorites – on February 29 with supporting act CJ Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band. In my mind Ball was the headliner, but was a little confused when she took the stage first.
Marcia Ball 2024 Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
I got what I came for right away – Ball’s upbeat blues, steeped in Down South rhythms. Her piano rolled, guitar and sax rocked, and Ball’s thin, world-wise vocals came right out of the middle. Ball even did a Subdudes song, which probably pleased John Magnie, who I spied in the crowd.
Marcia Ball at the Armory 2024 Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
I could have gone home at that point, but was glad I didn’t.
CJ Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band 2024 Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
Then CJ Chenier took the stage with his lean yet dynamic band. It wasn’t long before the Armory became a zydeco dance hall and there was definitely a pulse in the room, even if it did take a little cajoling from the band to get the crowd up and moving. But move they did to that rich, happy kinetic music from Louisiana.
CJ Chenier at the Armory 2024 Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
Don’t get me wrong – Ball’s set had plenty of energy too, but Chenier and band just tore the evening loose. The Armory got it right putting Ball on first and I saw a lot of happy music-lovers at the end of that show. Leap Day indeed.
Hearing of guitar great Jeff Beck’s recent passing tuned up my memories of the six string wonders I have seen throughout the years.
Jeff Beck Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
We can start with Beck. I only got to see him once — in 1989. Beck was touring with Stevie Ray Vaughan and they were alternating the headlining position. In Denver, Vaughan opened then Beck took the spotlight with super drummer Terry Bozzio.
Stevie Ray Vaughan Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
Beck’s set was a journey of ever shifting guitar styles and tones — he did it all. At the end, Vaughan came out to jam with Beck, playing “Goin’ Down” — they were both rough and ready.
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jeff Beck jam in Denver 1989 Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
Over the years, I’ve sought out a lot of the great rocker guitarists including Jimmy Page, Jerry Garcia, Frank Zappa, Joe Satriani, and many others.
Jimmy Page Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
A very memorable guitar event I went to in 1973, called “Guitar Explosion”, was an afternoon offering at the Hollywood Bowl featuring a diversity of players including a young Robben Ford, old bluesman T Bone Walker, plus electric guitar phenomenon Roy Buchanan, who wowed me with a blistering version of “Hey Joe”.
But I also learned about other guitar styles that day because the program also included an array of jazz players including Mary Osbourne with Jim Hall, Barney Kessel, Kenny Burrell, as well as Joe Pass with Herb Ellis. They challenged my rock and roll ears to listen to other stuff.
B.B. King Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
I also got to see the great bluesman BB King at the Hollywood Bowl that year. But the first time – in 1972 — was the best. King and his band opened the show, followed by Ray Charles and his orchestra. At the end of his set, Charles called King back on stage. Meanwhile, keyboardist Billy Preston was pulled out of the audience to join this once in a lifetime blues and soul super group.
Leo Kottke Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
My guitar favorites weren’t just rockers. One of my favorite albums as a teenager was Leo Kottke’s “Six and Twelve String Guitar” album. I was learning to play acoustic guitar and wanted to sound like him.
I got to see Kottke a number of times and even met him briefly at a show in Steamboat Springs. I was carrying my baby daughter and Kottke was very friendly.
Another great acoustic guitar player I saw was classical master Andres Segovia, famous for not using amplification. Fortunately, this concert hall in Arizona had been designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and I heard every note of the program up in the third balcony.
After the show, I went to the Howard Johnson’s across the street — and who should be sitting there at a booth but Segovia and his guitar handler? He took no special note of me as he signed my program quietly. Meanwhile his dinner came — a plate of spaghetti and a can of Coors.
Eric Clapton Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
I’ve saved my Eric Clapton story for last because it helps illustrate something about guitarists.
I’ve seen Clapton – perhaps the most revered guitarist of the rock era — a number of times, including a show at McNichol’s Arena with Phil Collins playing drums. But the most memorable was in 2007.
Clapton’s band included two other great contemporary guitarists — Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall II. As they kept trading solos and licks throughout the night, I realized that what Clapton knew was that the more guitarists, the better. It’s all good. That night ended with another voice being added to the mix as opener Robert Cray came out to join the band for “Crossroads”.
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Glory Nights- David Crosby Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
This is getting ridiculous. I recently wrote an RIP column for musicians we lost in 2022, then the loss of guitarist Jeff Beck prompted more nostalgia. Now, there’s another reason — David Crosby, the feisty songwriter-singer, recently passed away at 81.
Sure, I’ve got stories. I saw Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young a couple of times. I saw Crosby and Nash one perfectly mellow afternoon in Santa Barbara. Most recently, I saw Crosby at the Boulder Theater and it was a luminous show.
That Crosby show was one of those great “glory nights” of live music when everything works — the band, the sound, and the audience.
While I am writing, another name is added to the RIP list — Tom Verlaine of Television — and it provokes memories of another “glory night”.
That would be a Television show at the famous Roxy nightclub in LA. It was an intense experience, so electric that I convinced my wait person to let me stay for the second set.
Television did not just play songs, but also branched off into jamming — Verlaine and guitarist Richard Lloyd digging in together.
The best was saved for last. The show ended with a very electric version of the Stones’ “Satisfaction”. Verlaine scorched the guitar parts with manic fury, finally unstringing his guitar — while plugged in — for the finale. The intensity was very real and then very over. Even the band just kind of staggered around when the feedback was finished.
I could write many more columns about these “glory nights”.
Glory Nights – Bob Dylan Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
There’s that night I saw the power and majesty of Led Zeppelin in LA. There’s that first time I witnessed the mad cap rock and soul of Bruce Springsteen. There were buoyant shows by Paul McCartney, mind tickling encounters with Bob Dylan, top shelf rock and roll jams with The Rolling Stones, and trips to the edge of music with The Grateful Dead.
Glory Nights – Rolling Stones Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
I saw Paul Simon’s celebratory Graceland Tour at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Roger Waters at Radio City Music Hall, and Who bassist John Entwistle at the famous Stone Pony club in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I saw Jerry Garcia with Merl Saunders at the Keystone in Berkeley.
Glory Nights – Paul Simon Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
And it’s not just about the big-time. I cherish memories of seeing The Jam at a tiny club in Los Angeles — they were so young and powerful. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Puddles Pity Party at the Soiled Dove in Denver.
Glory Nights – Puddles Pity Party Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
Let’s include every Richard Thompson show I have ever seen.
Local shows also fit into it too — like Gil Scott Heron’s quintessential night club show at Sam’s Old Town Ballroom and Suzanne Vega’s Lincoln Center show that just glowed. I can’t forget the powerful night Edgar Winter and super drummer Carmen Appice played Linden’s. Let’s go ahead and add in the recent rock hard set by Samantha Fish at the Aggie Theatre.
The memories go way back — like the manic intensity of Jethro Tull in 1970. They are also recent — like Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’s great potboiler set last summer at Red Rocks.
Glory Nights – Jethro Tull Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
But don’t get me wrong. These “glory nights” are not what I live for. They are the sweet frosting on the cake of life. As fun as they are, as inspiring as they may be, as intense and exhilarating as they often are, they are the coda to the days in which we live, hopefully in light and love.
But that’s another story.
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Clarence Clemons RIP 2011 Stone Pony by Tim Van Schmidt
Frank Zappa and the Mothers’ music still lives Design by Tim Van Schmidt
After recently watching the 2020 documentary “Zappa”, directed by Alex Winter, an old inspiration has become new again. That is, the music and vision of guitarist, composer, and bandleader Frank Zappa.
Here’s my own Zappa “documentary”:
I’m riding in the car with my brother in Phoenix in 1967. The radio is on and some VERY strange music is coming out of the little speaker in the dashboard.
The song is “Lonely Little Girl” and it is my first exposure to the music of The Mothers of Invention — jittery, mad cap, unrestrained, and crazy — nothing like anything I had ever heard before. It definitely WASN’T pop music.
I wouldn’t get to see Zappa live until 1973 in Hollywood. His music had undergone several changes since I heard “Lonely Little Girl” — still unrestrained and crazy, but now with more complex musical underpinnings. And his band was made up of a new caliber of players including keyboardist George Duke and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty.
What wowed me was every time Zappa stepped up to play guitar, his fuzzy tone propelling snaky lead lines all over the map.
Zappa shows were always exciting
By the time I saw Zappa in Seattle the next year, I was an affirmed fan. I waited out in the rain for two hours to get a good seat and Zappa’s set was transformative. He still indulged in silly lyrics — my favorite tune was “Montana” — but the instrumental sections were clean and tight.
Back in Phoenix, in 1975, I couldn’t resist seeing Zappa again. This tour featured a reunion with Captain Beefheart, who naturally did the vocals for “Willie the Pimp”. After the show, my friends and I ran into Beefheart out in the parking lot, walking around in circles, fuming as he told us he was pissed with Zappa for limiting how much he got to “blow”.
Frank Zappa circa 1975
I wouldn’t see Zappa again until 1986, this time in New Jersey. The curious thing was that there seemed to be a whole new element to the audience — bunches of black-shirted heavy metal kids throwing their “horns” up in the air every time Zappa did something outrageous, like punching an inflatable sex doll.
The final tune of that night was everything I could have desired — a version of The Allman Brothers’ classic “Whippin’ Post” complete with a long Zappa guitar solo.
I didn’t get to see Zappa live again, but in 1988, I wrote one of my early articles for the Fort Collins press on a Denver artist contracted to make him a custom quilt. Apparently, Zappa had been encouraging his female fans to throw their underwear onto the stage. He gave the collection to this artist who made the quilt out of the unwashed laundry.
Zappa died in 1993, but in more recent years, I got to see Zappa Plays Zappa, lead by his son Dweezil, revive his music on stage. And the last concert I saw before the onset of the pandemic was Dweezil Zappa playing the entirety of the classic “Hot Rats” album at Washington’s.
Zappa Plays Zappa in Denver Photo by Tim Van Schmidt
These are fun stories, but are only fragments. I learned a lot more about this artist from “Zappa” — like his early attraction to filmmaking, his cultural attachments to Czechoslovakia, his fight against censorship, and his groundbreaking orchestral efforts. I can only recommend that music fans check out “Zappa” to learn about the full arc of this unique artist.
But more than anything, it is important that Zappa is still being heard. That’s his biggest success.
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The news that Tina Turner had died at the age of 83 this year brought back one of my favorite live music memories from the 1970s.
The year was 1972 and I went to the Valley Music Theatre in the San Fernando Valley to see Ike and Tina Turner. The venue was a strange-looking, dome-like building nestled neatly into the hillside on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills.
Inside was a theater-in-the-round, nondescript as far as ambiance, the stage definitely being the only aesthetic focal point. The seating ringed around the stage and the stage itself revolved.
Opening was surf guitar king Dick Dale, bleached blond and energetic by the very nature of California surf rock — simple, upbeat rock and roll with some dramatic California flair.
Then, Ike and Tina Turner took the stage and revved up their intense amalgam of soul and rock. The main focus on stage, of course, was Tina, flanked by two more vocalists. The women worked hard, singing and dancing, whipping up some real sweat on stage.
I know, because I had a front row seat and the revolving stage broke down dead center in front of me. So for the rest of the evening, Tina was performing not more than ten feet away. Most intense was an engine-hot version of the Beatles’ “Get Back” that Tina seemed to be driving right through my chest.
I remember at one point looking at the young man sitting next to me. He looked back and both of our sets of eyes were wide, wide open. Ike played guitar back by the band, while the women entertained. Other memorable moments included Ike and Tina’s showstopper “Proud Mary.”
