![]() ![]() Sprightly songs like "Monster Love" and Moss' tuneful soloing earned them a standing ovation from the crowd. That alone made the long ride home in the snow worthwhile.Ĭhicago bluesman Joe Moss opened the show with a tasty and soulful 35-minute set, almost all originals. His slide work was marvelous there, keening howls from his guitar as if it were a living thing, and a nice quote of Hendrix' "Third Stone from the Sun" to conclude it was an inspired touch. But the turbo-charged finale was a fiery rendition of Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisted," where the tempo was so fast Winter's vocals were almost too quick to catch. Something apparently called "Mojo Boogie" was yet another interchangeable, utterly forgettable, shuffle. And the galloping rowdiness at the heart of "It's All Over Now," an old Rolling Stones chestnut, was something you'd have expected from Winter thirty years ago. Nobody would complain about the lively sprint through "Boney Moroney" that Winter and his band cooked up. It was an impressive and masterful performance, if at times a bit plodding. Winter's take on Jimi Hendrix' "Red House" was also a new perspective, a slow and biting arrangement that saw him go from slide guitar runs to sheets of heavy chording, and then into big, ringing single note runs. One of Winter's more intriguing songs was "Black Cat," which seemed to explore the Led Zeppelin kind of rock/blues fusion more than the usual blues routine. But several other songs, like "Bad Luck and Trouble," seemed to fit too easily into that boogie/shuffle stereotype, and it seemed like the same basic song with different lyrics grafted on. One of the best numbers all night was an early swing/boogie apparently titled "She Likes to Boogie Real Low," where the band sounded more like a swing band with serious guitar muscles.īut it was firmly in the blues and boogie pocket that Winter and his crew remained for most of the night, with "Miss Ann" and "Tore Down," the latter sung by Luizzi, prime examples. The r&b song "Sugar Coated Love" became something akin to heavy metal blues in the quartet's treatment-not great, but certainly different. Saturday night they also provided stadium-level rock show volume, which was not such a good thing, although Winter's compelling guitar lines were clear throughout.Įarly on Winter did a blistering "Key to the Highway," his frenetic single note runs seeming to gallop up and down the fretboard. Winter plays these days with a backing trio, and drummer Vito Luizzi, bassist Scott Spray, and guitarist Paul Nelson provide a solid framework of the bar-band boogie and blues that the albino guitar ace specializes in. Although he played the whole show while seated, there was nothing remotely slow about his playing, or his song choices. Winter, 65, is in relatively good health these days, his various drug problems behind him. ![]() Initially the venue's management expected a slew of no-shows, but with nothing falling until about 10 p.m., the place was packed by the time Winter took the stage. start, and the headliner on by 9:05 p.m., by the time Winter's 80-minute show was over, there was only about an inch of snow on the ground, although the howling winds and whiteout conditions made the trip home a bit slow. Blizzard be darned, blues fans around here are a hardy lot, and that's why a sold out house of 280 fans turned out Saturday night to hear blues-rock legend Johnny Winter at the Narrows Center in Fall River. ![]()
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