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Saw the amazing Jeff Beck the other night...WOW!


cmatthes

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Apologies in advance for the crappy iPhone pics!

A good friend and former co-worker that I haven’t seen in a year or so called me up last week and asked if I wanted to catch the Jeff Beck show at Wolf Trap / Ann Wilson was opening. I never pass up a chance to see Jeff when he’s around, but that’s not all that often lately.  I’m also a fan of Craig Bartock’s playing with Heart/Ann W., so jumped at the chance.  

My friend had tickets left at Will Call from a high school buddy who I later found out is actually Jeff’s tour manager (!!).  Usually, he leaves my friend a pair of decent seats and gets to say “hi” in between sets.  We got the envelope and our jaws dropped:

 

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Tickets were dead center, 11th row back, and we caught Ann’s set, which opened and closed with bookended WHO classics and a rousing “Barracuda”. 

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3B863070-22EB-41F1-8BFF-D3883FA45372.jpegMy friend’s pal texted us to say that Ann had two songs left and for us to make our way to the Stage Left door to say hello.  We ended up going back to the band’s dressing rooms and grabbed a couple of quick Stella Artois and shot the shit.  

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After a bit, we went upstairs to the backstage area, which is HUGE, as there are a lot of theatrical and orchestral performances held there as well.  Walking around back there, I saw that apparently they’ll let ANYONE back there! 

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We got to check out the guitar racks and took up a perch in the Stage Left Monitor/Board area.  We were greeted by a wisecracking (and incessantly drumming) living legend, Vinnie Colaiuta.  My friend is a HUGE Zappa fan and they were laughing about old tours, ex-band members and bootlegs.  

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After that, it was showtime and the band was ready to launch when the house lights went down. Beck took the stage in a swirl of insane half-animal, half-mechanical howls, grunts and screams from his favorite white Strat (with reverse headstock), And didn’t let up for almost two hours.  I’ve seen him over a half dozen times before, and even being in the front row, there is nothing that I’ve experienced that could replicate the hair standing up on my arms and the pure gut-jarring volume of standing on stage, 20 ft (and often less!) from the one and only.  He truly plays guitar like no other human on the planet.  

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I was honestly too busy being blown away by the insane musicianship right in front of me, that I wasn’t as focused on snapping pics as I probably should have been, but kinda glad I didn’t, since Jeff kept walking over to our side, laughing and mugging, and the tour manager later told us that he can’t stand people who spend the entire show on their phones while he’s up there performing.  

Rhonda Smith has been handling bass duties for Jeff on the last few tours I’ve seen, and she is every bit the monster player Jeff and Vinnie are.  She was Prince’s bassist for a number of years, and naturally, can get funky as hell.  In the first pic below, it’s Rhonda Smith playing her Paul Reed Smith Grainger, while Paul Reed Smith watches for the Stage Right wings.

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They closed the set with “Goin’ Down”, and we hung around as the crowd filtered out and the crew loaded everything up.  My friend’s Road Manager pal came by with a red leather Gigbag holding Jeff’s Strat (and a cast off glass slide and one of Jeff’s Native American bracelets that he shed during the intro to “Starcycle”) and asked us if we wanted to hang out in the band lounge for a bit.  We followed him down the stairs and were handed more icy Stellas while the band filtered in to chat with a few friends, family members and us.  Jeff came out and said hello signed a few autographs (no pictures, per request 😢), and after another 30-40 minutes, the Wolf Trap Rangers let us know that they were closing down.

A beautiful August night a few miles outside of DC and one of those concert memories I don’t think I’ll be topping any time soon! 

 

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1 hour ago, scottcald said:

Very cool!  Clearly I need better friends. 😀

Was Paul trying to get Jeff to play the Silver Sky?  

Ha!  No - I know Paul NEVER misses JB when he’s in the DC/Baltimore area, but Rhonda is a longtime PRS endorser and they were hanging and chatting beforehand.  Jeff makes too much money from Fender to switch.  He played the one Strat all night, it never went out of tune (no idea how THAT was possible the way he plays!) and it was the one that travels with him on the bus, limo and plane.

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4 hours ago, cmatthes said:

 He played the one Strat all night, it never went out of tune (no idea how THAT was possible the way he plays!) and it was the one that travels with him on the bus, limo and plane.

I'd guess properly stretched strings, locking tuners and a perfectly balanced tremelo.

2 hours ago, DBraz said:

Jeff Beck is s living legend with incredible feel and dynamics.

He’s also a master at dying his hair.

Yessir! He looks so much younger now that he's stopped dying his hair gray...😉

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I saw him a few weeks ago in Berlin. It was fantastic. Very nice set (same as the setlist in the pic), I am also a fan of Cobham/Mahavishnu and Beck is obviously a fan of them for a long time. I am also a big fan of the old Mahavishnu albums. Unfortunately I missed Beck when he was touring with Narada. But as a Zappa fan I also like Colaiuta (whom I like better than Bozzio, when with Beck). I haven't seen Tal Wilkenfeld (I saw Beck with Randy Hope-Taylor on bass in 2006 before), but Rhonda Smith plays nice. Unfortunately most of her playing wasn't defined in the mix, it seemed  it was a -___- EQ, very boomy (as was the bass drum) and clacky but no defined tone. I heard this with other bands too. But man, Jimmy Hall had a great voice. Very good singer. The cellist was nice addition, as I was a bit tired with the keyboarders of Beck's band lately (except for David Sancious who is just a fantastic monster player). I always liked Max Middleton, but that was a long time ago.

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3 hours ago, DBraz said:

Wow!!

Jeff Beck is s living legend with incredible feel and dynamics.

He’s also a master at dying his hair.

The worst thing I ever did as a young kid trying to learn guitar in the late 70's, was buying "Wired" by Jeff Beck, impossible to figure it out, so I bought something miles easier instead, Van Halen 1.🤣

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Man, I am so jealous!

That brings to mind a missed opportunity of many years ago.....Jeff Beck was touring with Santana. While in Los Angeles, he spent an afternoon with a buddy in Beverly Hills who has one of the best hot rod collections around, just shootin' the shit about cars. (BTW, that is not Jay Leno, who has Bruce topped!)

Anyway, at lunch the following Monday, Bruce slapped his head with his best "I coulda had a V-8" moment". "Oh shit! Jeff gave me backstage seat/passes. We couldn't go. I completely forgot you love guitars!"

So close......

ETA, one little Bruce/guitar anecdote......He was adding a classic guitar (Strat) to hang in the "garage" as part of a 50's theme. Asked me if I knew someone in LA that could do a custom hot rod flame paint job. I gave him a few names. The following week, he said, "Never mind. I just had George Barris whip one up for me". Talk about living in a different world!

(Don't get me started on the "garage").

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Chris, Great story and review I am in the jealous camp as well

Have had the pleasure of seeing  Beck 3x . Twice with Rod Stewart as the vocalist and Ron Wood playing bass. That was in the Morning Dew era and Beck was still playing his Lester. The last time I saw him he was opening for Stevie Wonder and his band included the dude who played that mini keyboard thing. Senior moment can't name the guy or the instrument. That was Superstition era. All times he was tremendous. Unfortunately I have not had the pleasure of seeing him since he changed his style.

ArnieZ

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Arnie - Jan Hammer?

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23 hours ago, django49 said:

Man, I am so jealous!

That brings to mind a missed opportunity of many years ago.....Jeff Beck was touring with Santana. While in Los Angeles, he spent an afternoon with a buddy in Beverly Hills who has one of the best hot rod collections around, just shootin' the shit about cars. (BTW, that is not Jay Leno, who has Bruce topped!)

Anyway, at lunch the following Monday, Bruce slapped his head with his best "I coulda had a V-8" moment". "Oh shit! Jeff gave me backstage seat/passes. We couldn't go. I completely forgot you love guitars!"

So close......

ETA, one little Bruce/guitar anecdote......He was adding a classic guitar (Strat) to hang in the "garage" as part of a 50's theme. Asked me if I knew someone in LA that could do a custom hot rod flame paint job. I gave him a few names. The following week, he said, "Never mind. I just had George Barris whip one up for me". Talk about living in a different world!

(Don't get me started on the "garage").

I saw a concert on the Beck / Santana tour, good seat too.  It was the  Palladino, Bozio, Batten band with JB!  You missed something great.

Oh yah, Carlos was pretty good too!

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Very cool Chris-thanks for sharing, that looks like it was an amazing evening!! Good to know people in the know!!  Definitely one of those top 5 guitar players you have to see.

I was upgraded on a flight to Europe and he was a row ahead of me. Didn't know he wears hearing aids (why he keeps he hair long-at least according to his handler), but it makes sense if you play as loud as he does for all those years. 

Peter

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2 minutes ago, HamStd said:

Very cool Chris-thanks for sharing, that looks like it was an amazing evening!! Good to know people in the know!!  Definitely one of those top 5 guitar players you have to see.

I was upgraded on a flight to Europe and he was a row ahead of me. Didn't know he wears hearing aids (why he keeps he hair long-at least according to his handler), but it makes sense if you play as loud as he does for all those years. 

Peter

WHAT?

That makes sense - afterwards, in the "party room" (it was NOT anything approaching that!), I did notice that he kept bending his head sharply towards whomever was speaking to him.  I had the passing thought that he may have gotten water in his ear in the post-gig shower or something.

I will say that the stage volume was pretty manageable (even with Vinnie C.) and the monitors were stageside, not blasting out front.

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Might be urban legend, but I think I read somewhere that Jeff was playing with

Saul Hudson once, and he wanted to play through Jeff's amp.  JB wasn't prepared,

and Saul cranked the shit out of it and laid into something super heavy whilst Jeff

was right next to the amp.  Apparently, Jeff's hearing hasn't been the same since?

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Just now, SSII x 2 said:

Might be urban legend, but I think I read somewhere that Jeff was playing with

Saul Hudson once, and he wanted to play through Jeff's amp.  JB wasn't prepared,

and Saul cranked the shit out of it and laid into something super heavy whilst Jeff

was right next to the amp.  Apparently, Jeff's hearing hasn't been the same since?

It's either that or

playing live for

50+ years.

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