Quote:
Originally Posted by stlcardsfan
I’ll send Alex Lifeson. Very underrated. This might be the best instrumental of all time. Check out the first guitar solo at 3:51.
https://youtu.be/eK1hmDpa8bo |
Fantastic link and performance. Had the pleasure to see him play in the early 70's when Rush first started touring. Cleveland had a famous bar/band venue known as the Cleveland Agora. And they would regularly have what were called "Monday Night's Out" concerts with up-and-coming acts before they become too big and famous for such a small bar venue. They were usually co-sponsored by Cleveland's then-iconic, and considered at one-time America's #1 rock-n-roll radio station, WMMS, the "home of the buzzard"! Can still remember sitting with a high school buddy of mine on the top of a table, pushed up against the back wall, only about 40-50 feet from the stage, as he led into the opening chords/riff of "Working Man".
In fact, rather than just telling you about it, cursor down in this link and you can actually hear what I was hearing, and seeing, in person while sipping on a beer.
https://www.cleveland.com/life-and-c...d-agora-c.html
And the original, iconic Cleveland Agora Ballroom that was on East 24th Street, just a block north of Cleveland State University, did this type of concert virtually every Monday night. The 35 performances listed in this link are literally just a mere drop in the bucket. And I saw a few of them. Like the Kiss performance also on this list from April Fool's Day in 1974. Oddly enough, a friend from high school and I were sitting at a table drinking 3.2 piss-water beer about 15-20 feet from the stage for that one. And Kiss wasn't even the headliner, they were only the opening act. We were actually there to see Rory Gallagher.
In fact, Rory Gallagher is another very celebrated rock guitarist who was an inspiration and admired by many other musicians of the time. Very blues oriented, and very much a live performer. He almost became a Rolling Stone, and hung out and collaborated with the likes of Keith Richards and Jimmy Page. For example, he wrote the opening riff to "Start Me Up". He was at times referred to as "the greatest guitarist you've never heard of" due to his surprising lack of overall fame, and somewhat early death in 1995 at the age of only 47.
If you like acoustic guitar and blues, check out "As the Crow Flies". For more of a rock sound, check out "A Million Miles Away".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heD3siavZBg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w0kQ74kZcw
Some interesting fact/tidbits. At the Kiss show, Kiss's finale was "Firehouse" (their first album had just come out and they didn't have any of their big hits yet), and they had some old-fashioned revolving red police/fire department lights going off during the finale, along with a smoke machine. Unfortunately, the Agora was not a regular theater type venue with a high, open ceiling over the stage. Was an old industrial building and really just one big room they built an elevated stage about 3-4 feet above the rest of the floor on. No curtains or anything like that. Kiss had their drum set on an elevated platform another couple of feet or so above the rest of the stage, and additionally on some kind of risers that pushed Peter Criss even higher up during the finale for a more dramatic effect I guess. He just barely made it to the end of the song before passing out from smoke inhalation, as the smoke had nowhere to really go and just accumulated against the low ceiling. He ended up having to be taken to the emergency room. At the Iggy Pop show, Bowie didn't really do anything other than stay in the background and play keyboard for Pop. He didn't want to take anything away from Iggy and his group. And though not on the top 35 list, after a friend and I saw The Babys with John Waite perform at the Agora one Monday night, we went to get coffee and something to eat at the nearby Swingo's Keg & Quarter restaurant, bar, and hotel. It was the place in Cleveland where pretty much all the rock groups and performers stayed when they came to perform in or around downtown Cleveland. Lo and behold, we end up in the booth right next to The Babys and Waite, My God, though a few years older than my friend and I, they acted like a bunch of ridiculous, immature, out of control, 3-year-olds with no parents around. I felt so bad for the waitress taking care of them. I think she would have clubbed each one of them if she could have gotten away with it. LOL But that was why people stayed at Swingo's back then.