Concerts 1989-1994

[1989-10-01] Dennis Brown & Gregory Isaacs

Location TBA

I saw these two giants of Reggae Music play in succession in a small club in Manhattan around this time. The date was probably later in time and may have even been in 1990, but not later than that. I purchased a classic Reggae album (on cassette tape) when I was in Jamaica in 1990 called “No Camouflage,” which was done by these two great artists on a collaborative basis. An absolute favorite reggae album of mine (although there are many), I plan to posts more information or a copy of the music from that album.

1990[-05-01] Ten Years After

Date and Location unconfirmed

Haven’t yet confirmed specific information about the date and venue. I saw Ten Years After during a reunion tour which I am pretty sure took place in 1990. This show was at a theatre in midtown manhattan (somewhere close to the roadhouse, if it wasn't the (Lonestar) roadhouse.

An important show for me to see because Ten Years After was certainly my very favorite rock band for awhile when I was growing up in the 70s, but they had mostly broken up since the 80s. With a friend who played guitar and later studied sound engineering, we got very tuned into Alvin and we proceeded to collect not only the 10 Years After records but also some of his solo work which was quite good. (I remember my buddy finding a great photo of Alvin jamming with Winwood on guitar back in the day, maybe from one of the Fillmores, and promptly tacking it up in the middle of his wall in his dorm room.) By this point Alvin had done his own thing for a long while. The reunion tour came as a surprise and rare opportunity to see them together again. Of course now Alvin is gone like so many other wonderful musicians included on this list. For me, TYA and Alvin are among the towering all-time greats of rock music, and at this point in time, perhaps one of the least mentioned and underappreciated of the great English rock bands of the 60s and 70s. They had a larger musical "footprint" than most people probably realize - and while "I'd Love to Change the World" regularly garnered radio time, their albums are mostly solid throughout and contain interesting songs rarely played on the radio. Although they are known as a blues-rock band (and they certainly played a lot of blues rock and hard rock), from early on they also incorporated some pretty heavy jazz influence and, later, funky clavinet and other more modern styles into their music. And they always rocked out and jammed like hell, before there was a category called Jam Band.

1990-02-17 David Bromberg

The Bottom Line

1990-1.jpg

Waiting outside to get in was kind of a unique part of the experience at the Bottom Line in Greenwich Village, NYC. I heard a familiar sounding voice, it was Penn Jillette on the line with us, fooling around as usual.

In a previous post I mentioned the popularity of the tapes that circulated of Bromberg’s Bottom Line shows. This was one of the anniversary shows there, and always something to enjoy thoroughly.

1991-08-05 Marty Balin

Stephen Talkhouse

1991-6-4.jpg
 

On a Monday night in August in 1991, Amagansett was pretty quiet, and much less busy than it has been in more recent years.

The Stephen Talkhouse was a very small, intimate scene. If you got a table, you felt like you were right on top of the performers. (Even after it was later expanded, the Talkhouse was still a very small and intimate club; in 1991 the Talkhouse was still in its original form.)

A local restaurant there featured a "4 hour salad" - made from ingredients picked out of the ground within 4 hours previous to being served. But that night we went to Mt Fuji - the sushi restaurant in Amagansett - for dinner before the show, and we immediately saw Marty and band members eating there. So we said hello to them and wished them well. They did not disappoint - an intimate musical experience with one of the true leaders of the 1960s San Francisco music scene.

I was really sad to hear of his passing and will always remember seeing him at this show, at which he played a beautiful version of “Summer of Love,” and other great songs…

1991-09-08 The Grateful Dead

Madison Square Garden

My US Open mens final ticket stub from that day.

During the afternoon of this day I went to the US Open Tennis Mens Finals and watched Stephan Edberg systematically destroy Jim Courier with his lightning-fast serve and volley game. The official start time of the mens finals was listed as 1pm, but I don’t think it started on time. During the match my companion and I had moved into court-side seats because someone nice had arranged for us to sit there, just a few rows up off the court.

1991-2 additional-4.jpg

So it was a little difficult trying to explain how much I appreciated that when I also knew we had to leave early in order to make it to MSG for this Dead show on that evening. We arrived a little late but were settled in our seats by the time they played a smoking version of Big River, a few songs into the first set.