Johnny played at the Pori Jazz Festival in Finland on Thursday, 15th of July. The venue was great. It was an old factory outlet, quite nicely decorated as a Louisiana-style clubhouse with voodoo figures, etc.
Johnny came on stage at 11:15 PM and opened, of course, with "Hideaway." He then played through almost the same set as on the Live in NYC 1998 CD. His drummer Vito Liuzzi did vocals on "Going Down"; I guess that's an old Freddie King or Jimmy Reed tune—I can't remember for sure.
The audience did seem to like what they heard. Of course, there were a lot of fans who haven't seen Johnny for years, and they were expecting more or less "Johnny B. Goode," "Bony Moronie" stuff.
It was 1987 when he was last in Finland. One sign that people really had been waiting to see him was that the concert was almost sold out—4,700 tickets sold when 5,000 was the maximum capacity. Robben Ford opened for him.
Johnny ended the concert with "Johnny Guitar," and the encore was "Drop the Bomb" as always nowadays. He did great vocals, very strong, on "Sick and Tired" and a nice piece of slide on "The Sky Is Crying."
I saw Johnny last time a year ago in Toronto, and this time he was much better, I think.
After the concert, I went to meet Slatus (whom I have known since 1992) backstage on their bus. He was really happy about the concert and the venue. I also had a chat with Mark Epstein, who seemed to enjoy their concert also. Johnny was happy too.
At 1 AM, Johnny had a press conference. There were about 15 journalists altogether, and also 3 TV stations from Finland. Johnny was in a very good mood although he seemed to be quite tired. He mentioned that he is going to start work on a new studio album in spring 2000; I guess that was the news of the conference.
He sat there in front of the media for about 20 minutes, and after that signed album covers for people for about 10 more minutes. Many people also got a picture with him outside of the press room.
Next day, he played an outdoor gig at the same festival, but I didn't see that. I guess many people are worried about Johnny's health, but what I think is that he is just getting older and, of course, the past years have left marks on him, also others than his tattoos. He said that he is on medication for anxiety and he knows that he is not like he was in his 20s or 30s. But he loves to play and he will do tours as long as he can be on stage. I see this just as a process of one person's life, like with everybody else. John Lee Hooker is not like he was 30 years ago. Miles Davis was older and different in his later years. Keef is not a teenager anymore.
I think Johnny's fans have more problems with this fact than Johnny himself.
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