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Johnny Winter returned to the stage with a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden, proving his blues-rock prowess. Opening act Foghat set the tone with their British rock sound. Winter, sporting a flamboyant black velvet gown, opened with "Rock Me Baby" amidst a shower of silver confetti. His performance was a mix of guitar mastery and rock and roll theatrics, further enhanced by a female percussionist in a dazzling silver jumpsuit.
Review: (Author unknown)
Yes, folks, Johnny Winter is still alive and well, and he proved his recuparetive abilities by selling out Madison Square Garden and thoroughly galvanised the crowd, despite the fact that while people kept yelling "rock and roll", Winter just kept on laying down his own brand of bluesy rock. Foghat were the opening act, and they got off a truly flash variation of British hot rocks.
Winter won over the crowd immediately when he swept onto the stage in the same black velvet gown with shocking pink sleeves that he wore when he sat in at Max's Kansas City with Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, and went "Nashville".
But there was nothing Country about his music, no sirree. They opened with Bill Broonzy and Arthur Cruduo's "Rock me baby", from the new (Still Alive and Well) album, and a shower of silver squares cascaded down from the Garden ceiling - just like Alice Cooper's funny money did. Sashaying across the stage with the lights turning his hair bright gold and his black gown fluttering, Winter looked like a witch riding a magic guitar.
And with him was this Female beatting on a tambourine with a stick - and she wore this fantastic silver jumpsuit which plunged to the navel - and lower - with multi-fringe, like a bopping neon cheerleader. Johnny capered up the scales of his guitar as though he had the mid-night creep. He stripped cutely out his fown down to the same kind of junpsuit as the tambourine lady, bumping and grinding with purpose as he did so, to delighted applause.
He twirled his fringe like and exotic dancer, extricating his guitar strap and working the stage. You could call him a perfectionist, but even his search for perfection has its limits. He changed his guitar in about just every song, and once, he even did it in the middle of a number. Every word out of his mouth was "rock and roll" from his lyrics to his one-liners or more extended raps. Still although the pretended to go along with the great boogie rock mystique, Johnny's music was not so much rock as the songtitles suggested. His guitar style has lost none of its forcefulness, and my ears crackled from the decibel level.
He played opposite his bass player Randy Jo Hobss, once of the McCoys and alsa a member of the Johnny Winter And band. The long exaggerated solos were self-indulgent, altough technically clean and gilt-edged. Image BB King at speed, dressed up like a witch doing a strip act, and you've got the picture.
"Jumping Jack Flash" finally brought things to rock and it was about time. The folks wanteda another chance to leap up and release tehri energy, and they seem to get to it no matter who performs this great rock classic. Johnny ahd'em going and reached for more, thrusting the head of his guitar between the legs of the tambourine playing sex-object. There was no way he could escape without doing several encores, and the smell of sulhpur dioxide swept the mammoth hall as matches we ignited as a love offering.
He threw in some bravura guitar playing, on his knees on the floor and the ultimate over-head, behind-back, every possible angle. All this brought rauceous brayings for more, but I cut out before the last encore.