- Johnny Winter Heats Up Madison Square Garden
On a rocking Saturday night in June 1974, Johnny Winter brought his high-energy boogie to a packed Madison Square Garden. With a new guitarist adding depth to his sound, Winter delivered a relentless set of rock 'n' roll that had the crowd on their feet from start to finish. Despite a few interruptions from overzealous fans, Winter proved once again why he's the king of the American boogie merchants.
New YORK: Johnny Winter Is all that the American rock fan needs for an evening's entertainment, Johnny and a pack of beer, an opportunity to shake and shout, wave arms in the end and finish the evening by throwing the empty beer cans through a window. Winter is the king of the boogie merchants; flash but not too flash, loud but not complex, intricate but never above the fans' heads. A perfect combination of talent and ability to judge what the audience wants to hear. In his way, Johnny Winter is to America what Slade are to England in this respect. Both ads are acutely aware of what to give their audience. Winter played a packed Madison Square Garden recently.
The orchestra level patrons were out of their seats for the whole show and the crush at the front looked less than comfortable. It was up, up, up all the way: rock 'n' roll from start to finish punctuated only by Johnny's sorties towards the mike between songs and hoarse shouts along the lines of "Yeh wanna Rock and Roll?" Unanimous "yeahs" inevitably bounced back. Most of his material was taken from the new "Saints and Sinners " album. The last time I saw Winter, the band was just three musicians. This time he's added an extra guitar player which filled out the sound even more and, thankfully, rang the changes a little from number to number.
A little variation has added considerably more colour to the band, even though the relentless boogie became a little wearying after an hour. There were times when you could walk outside for 20 minutes and return, convinced that the band was playing the same number. It must have been frustrating for the performer that this particular part of the show seemed lost on the crowd who continued to yell for more "boogles." Some fans even chucked beer cans and the like on stage causing Winter to interrupt the proceedings with a warning that any more missiles and he would end the show there and then. It stopped although it didn't stop other factions inside the Garden from chucking lighted fireworks from the upper levels of this cavernous structure. Winter's decided he's there to entertain rather than educate.
The audience, which included brother Edgar sat at the side of the stage, loved every move he made.
- CHRIS CHARLES-WORTH.