My review from Las Vegas. The only revision is that, yes, he DID sing with the Firebird.
Fair warning: This won't be the review I had hoped to write.
The Johnny Winter concert in Las Vegas was last night. I haven't slept.
Yesterday, I primed myself for the show by listening to Live in NYC twice in my hotel room. I wanted to compare his 1997 performance with what he's doing now.
Around 6 pm, I checked out of my downtown Las Vegas hotel and took a taxi to Mandalay Bay. That place is really nice. Besides the architecture, one of the first things you notice is that the cocktail waitresses have a fair amount of their backsides on display. Conveniently, they all have great backsides. I had dinner at the Mandalay Buffet—three piles of crab legs and about 50 other things.
Entering the House of Blues, someone asked me if I had "any extra tickets." It must have been a sellout.
The House of Blues is quite elaborate, with at least two restaurants and five bars. The showroom is rectangular, with the stage on one side and bars on the other three. I went to my seat on the Loge level, watching the first two warm-up bands. The seats were comfortable with a good view of the stage below. In front of the stage was a large open area where people were dancing and mingling.
I sat next to a good-looking forty-ish woman and her even better-looking 20-year-old daughter. We didn’t talk... until later...
Beers were $5. I was sober for the first Johnny concert in my life.
The crowd was the typical Johnny audience, but somehow, everyone looked older. Do I? Biker types were sprinkled throughout (no one noticed me in disguise). Drunk guys, drunk women. Overall, the same people, just mellower. Among them was about 5% of people who clearly didn’t belong. WAY older than me, well-dressed. I suspect they were people who "wanted to see a Las Vegas show" and didn’t necessarily know who Johnny was.
The first warm-up band was Grady Champion, a young harmonica player. He was fair. His guitarist, a woman, was also fair.
The second band was Coco Montoya, a slightly overweight guitarist from Southern California. Pretty good. He played a right-handed Stratocaster left-handed, with the low strings on the bottom—Hendrix style.
As the second band wrapped up, I made my move down to the stage. It was easier than I expected. No pushing or shoving. I walked right up to the stage, slightly to the left. The stage came up to my chin. When the curtain opened, I would be the only one directly in front of Johnny.
The crowd in front of the stage was very Johnny-oriented. Lots of people drinking. Sporadic "YEAH!" and yells of "John-ny!" I ended up between a pretty cool, Johnny-knowledgeable muscle guy and some other guy from Baltimore. The Baltimore guy bragged that he’d seen Johnny 16 times. I couldn't help but tell him I’ve seen Johnny "somewhere around 25 times."
Here we go.
House lights dim.
Sound of the Lazer guitar.
Curtain opens.
There’s Johnny, right in front of me, behind one of two monitor speakers. The mic stand is 18 inches to my right. Perfect.
The song was Hideaway.
White Lazer guitar. Black cowboy boots, Levi’s, sleeveless black Blues Brothers T-shirt, slightly longer-than-shoulder-length hair, straw hat.
Wow, I thought, Johnny looks... old.
THERE’S JOHNNY.
I totally dig seeing Johnny. My mouth dropped open because I was standing there, watching Johnny right in front of me. My mouth stayed open for the rest of the show.
Music Man amp.
The Lazer sounds OK. Let’s look Johnny over. His face looks pale. He’s lost some weight—you can see it in his face. His tattoos are fading, with no new ones. A couple of rings on his right hand, none on the left. He’s wearing a watch. The white Lazer has rainbowish stars on it. I meant to count them but never did.
Is it my position by the monitor, or did Johnny just miss a lick?
I glance at the bass player. So, that’s Mark Epstein . Precision. Nice sound. The drummer... new drummer... sounds OK... I can’t see him.
Wow. There’s Johnny playing the Lazer. I DIG JOHNNY.
OK, time to take some pictures. I had my APS mini camera with 400-speed film. Flash off, out of respect for Johnny. The usual problems—mic stand in the way, and the annoying stage lighting which was anything but white. Real bad row of lights just above Johnny’s head. I took about 20 pictures, but I’m not expecting much. I did (forgive me) switch on the flash for a couple of shots when Johnny had his eyes closed. It seemed... important.
Later in the show.
OK, so he’s sticking to the Live in NYC set. Fair enough.
Johnny looks old. I’m actually hearing mistakes. Mistakes? From Johnny? No. YES.
He’s rocking back and forth as he plays. He always did that, but now it’s different. He rocks at the same tempo, even if it doesn’t match the song. Medication comes to mind.
Medication, mistakes, and he looks older...
But it’s SO AWESOME to SEE JOHNNY RIGHT THERE.
Those ARE mistakes. We’re on the third song now, and I just saw the bass player cringe.
How could Johnny possibly make a mistake on guitar? He never did before. Well, if he did, he’d cover it up by repeating the wrong note like he "meant to do it." But he’s not doing that. Can he not hear it like I can? Or does he hear the mistake but can’t fix it?
THERE’S JOHNNY. The crowd is loving Johnny. People are INTO the show. Drunk people are dancing. This is definitely a JOHNNY CONCERT.
Johnny lays down a trademark lick, and the crowd goes wild. WILD!
Johnny’s singing sounds OK. At least, not THAT bad. Maybe I’ve never really heard him sing at a concert because I’m always near the stage, and the vocal speakers are "somewhere else."
Later, I realized that during the entire show, Johnny didn’t growl out a single "YEAH!"
Third song. Confirmed. Johnny is off tonight. He’s playing, but it’s not like I remember.
Wow. I can’t believe I’m seeing this.
Now I recall walking out of one of his incredible shows at the Country Club in the Valley 15 years ago, telling Chris, "How long can he keep doing this? Someday, he’ll slow down..."
On the way to the show tonight, I thought I’d yell out, "Broke and Lonely!" I really want to hear that one. But now, I think better of it. He’s clearly sticking to the setlist, and I don’t want to confuse him.
I did, however, shout, "Whip it out, Johnny!" between songs. It made him smile. I know he heard me.
He looks like he’s having fun, but it’s like he’s struggling. Another wrong note.
A new song is about to start. The bass player comes over, looks Johnny in the eye, and says something. He’s done that before.
I smell pot from the audience behind me. Long live tradition.
Johnny still has the fire. The show is LOUD. I can feel my shirt vibrating from the bass. He still has the fire because he still plays the licks that make the crowd go nuts.
But where’s the innovation? Johnny used to play a few new licks at every concert that would make my hair stand up. I always looked forward to that.
I don’t care about the mistakes. I’ll see Johnny any time, anywhere I can.
We’re well into the set now. I noticed a Firebird-sized guitar case stage left. And now that you mention it, that "roadie" looks familiar. He’s watching Johnny very carefully...
I think he played The Sun is Shining with the Lazer, ended the song, switched guitars, then played the solo with the Firebird/slide.
For the first time since the show started, Johnny moves about 15 feet to switch guitars. He’s moving SO SLOWLY. My father is 81, and he moves more fluidly. How old is Johnny now?
Johnny moves to change guitars. He’s incredibly slow. He ever so slowly places the brown Firebird in its case like it’s an immensely valuable relic, which, of course, it is.
The Firebird sounds sweet. It’s so good to hear that slide.
THERE’S JOHNNY WHIPPING IT OUT ON SLIDE!
He’s not doing the back-and-forth rocking motion with the Firebird. He looks more natural now. He’s comfortable, at ease.
THERE’S JOHNNY PLAYING SLIDE ON THE FIREBIRD!!
I’m happy. Finally, in sync with the universe.
Even with Ticketmaster’s fees, admission is now justified. Johnny on slide—it’s heaven.
But something’s different. I don’t think he sang and played slide at the same time. Another difference from the album, and from just three years ago.
After the slide song, the guitar switch was just as slow. Johnny was so deliberate, as if every motion was sacred.
More Lazer
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