B.B. King and Joe Walsh
The Borgata, Event Center, Atlantic City N.J.
October 22, 2011
B.B. King
I first discovered B.B. King when he collaborated with Eric Clapton on the CD “Riding with the King” in the year 2000.
It would be an understatement to say I was pumped when I found out I was going to this show. It helped overcome the disappointment when Don Henley appeared at Caesar’s Palace in Atlantic City and the tickets were gone in less than 2 minutes…missed that one.
As the stage was being set up, various mic stands were placed and different stage hands came out and tuned different instruments. A stage hand abruptly appeared and placed “Lucille” on a guitar stand. This caused a minor stir among the gathering crowd as a small army of camera phone photographers moved forward to photograph the iconic guitar.
At 8:07 PM the house lights went down and the B.B. King Blues Band took their places on the Event Center Stage. The show opened with the Blues Band performing two instrumental numbers, the first one sounding more “jazzy” than “bluesy”, but the second one was definitely “bluesy”. Each piece featured solo performance by all eight of the band members.
At the conclusion of the second number
B.B. King was assisted to the stage as he was introduced by the PA announcer. He was helped into his chair center stage, and upon sitting, he immediately began to throw guitar picks into the audience. He strapped on Lucille and played a blues guitar riff and then continued to throw guitar picks to the crowd.
He then introduced the band:
Van Fryes – keyboards
Reggie Richard – bass
Tony Coleman – drums
Charlie Dennis – guitar
Walter King – baritone sax
Melvin Jackson – tenor sax
Stanley Abernathy – trumpet
James Boldin – flugelhorn and band leader
Upon introducing the band, he asked, “Did I forget the drummer?” He suddenly realized they were all introduced so he remarked, “That’s what happens when you’re 86! My name is B.B. King, and I’m 86!”
His first song was “I Need You So” and before the applause was over he immediately went into “Rock Me Baby”. The performance of “Rock Me Baby” featured B.B. and Blues Band Guitarist Charlie Dennis keying off one another for some fantastic solo guitar work at the conclusion of which B.B. remarked, “He (Dennis) can really play!”
B.B. keyed off of Dennis and poked some barbs about his being a ladies man and whenever he was around he felt the need to hold Lucille a little closer because “I’m 86!”
B.B. went on again about his age, but I’m not complaining…I hope I can do half of what he does if I make 86.
The Set List:
I Need You So; Rock Me Baby; Key to the Highway; Nobody Loves Me (Like My Mother);
Every Day I Have the Blues; The Thrill is Gone; You Are My Sunshine.
As the show was nearing the end, a lady moved from the audience and presented King with a bouquet of flowers. He then noticed there were several youngsters in the audience and invited them forward to shake his hand. The show concluded with the band playing and King handing medallions and guitar picks to the audience members until he ran out. He thanked everyone and left the stage at 9:15 PM.
B.B King may be feeling his age, but it was special for me to have the opportunity to see this show business legend perform. His set list was short, but he and Lucille can still work magic on those six strings.
Joe Walsh
The house lights went back down at 9:42 PM. The band members took their places and out walked Joe Walsh, moving right up to Center stage and Starting off with, “How ya Doin’?” And…I could tell from the “talk tube” wrapped around his microphone stand that at some point we were going to be treated to another unique rendition of “Rocky Mountain Way”. He was dressed all in black, in what appeared to be black denim. He was wearing black and red shoes which made me wonder about something I had previously read about Joe Walsh and shoes.
In the Hard Rock Café publication, “Treasures of the Hard Rock Café” by Paul Grushkin and Joel Selvin, there is an article about a piece of Joe Walsh memorabilia on display in the Dallas, Texas café. It is a Fender Stratocaster guitar that Joe supposedly played when “Hotel California” was recorded. There is a picture of Joe on page 24. He is sitting on a bar, holding a guitar. The picture was taken in 1986 at the Dallas Hard Rock. In the caption, the authors observe that Joe is wearing pair of loafers he had traded with the elevator operator at the Dallas Hard Rock. Seeing Joe wearing those shoes at the AC show, well, one just has to wonder if Joe had not just struck a similar deal a few minutes before he took the stage. But I digress.
He started off with “Welcome”. His guitar playing from beginning to end was simply incredible. He has been playing these songs for so long I have no doubt he could play them in his sleep. He moved to “Life of Illusion”. He changed guitars before he would begin each song. For anyone that has ever seen Walsh perform before he was at his vintage best.
He would banter with the audience about his days in Montclair, New Jersey, observing, “Well I guess that makes me an official something.” which was greeted with a thunderous round of applause.
As the applause died down some very loud spectator voiced his desire to hear Joe play “ILBT’s”. (If you have to ask, you are not a Joe Walsh fan and I can’t risk “The Border” losing its “G” rating).
Joe responded, “Shhhh! It’s supposed to be a surprise!” which left everyone laughing. And as I previously observed He performed another unique, talk tube version of “Rocky Mountain Way”, including some incredible slide guitar work.
Right before he began “Life’s Been Good” he lamented that, “This song is probably the root cause of all of our problems. If I’d a known that I’d be known for this song, I probably would have written something else.” As he played the song, many scenes from Joe’s younger days were projected on the back of the stage that included him in a tank, breaking down hotel walls, riding in a limo and if you know the song, you know the show.
Before he played “Rosewood Bitters”, he observed that the song was written by fellow guitarist Michael Stanley, but he wished he had written it. The song is about a tired, long time performing guitar player who has the “Rosewood Bitters” (the wood most guitar fret boards are made of).
He introduced his back ground singers, Gia Tambora, Mini Martin and Ricky “Bubba” Washington, who each sang a verse of “Released”.
Unfortunately for me, he introduced the musicians so fast, the only names I got were drummer Drew Hester and Frank Allen, although I’m not sure what Allen was playing. For this show Joe used 2 drummers and a percussionist. Chicago fans will recognize Drew Hester as their alternate drummer. He also had another guitar player on stage (the guy was really good) , a bassist, and a keyboard player. If anyone knows the names of Joe’s band, shoot me a personal message or an email on the Border and I will be glad to edit this review to include them. I can’t find it anywhere on the Internet.
Right before he left the stage he began the very familiar guitar riff that starts “Life in the Fast Lane” . This was the fourth time I had seen him perform this song in person and, if possible, he just keeps getting better at it. He left the stage @ 10:55 PM to an ear splitting standing ovation.
It didn’t take long for him and the band to return for an encore which started off with ILBT’s. Upon concluding the song He put his hand on his hip, walked up to the microphone and made sure everyone heard him ask, “Are you happy now?” He then finished with "All Night Long".
As he struck the last note he had the amplifier set to do a repeating echo something that went on until a stage hand stopped it.
The Set List:
Welcome; Life of Illusion; Walk Away; Over and Over; Rocky Mountain Way; Released; Rosewood Bitters; Turn to Stone; In the City; Funk 49; Life’s Been Good; Life in the Fast Lane;
Encore – ILBT’s; All Night Long
There were two disappointments I found with the show. The first, Joe did not perform any songs from the new album, even though he hinted earlier in a Philadelphia radio interview, and the second, he did not team up with B.B. King and play at least one number with even though he opened the show by observing that, “B.B. King is one of the great ones we all studied.”
That being said I will not remember this as anything except an exceptional performance that I will long remember.
A side note: Tiffany Twisted and I went to AC to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. Meeting Soda, Dreamer, Henley Honey and her other half, who I 'll refer to here as Henley Honey's Honey made the trip more special. We all met after the show at the Metropolitan Restaurant. A splendid time was had by all. I am shrinking the pictures in Photoshop and I will be forwarding them to Soda when I am finished.
Atlantic City, NJ 10-22-11
'I must be leaving soon... its your world now'
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