FAVORITE LIVE SHOWS OF ALL TIME

Iggy and The Stooges, The Whisky A Gogo, 1973. See # 8.

Bakers' Dozen of my favorite ever live shows that I attended and/or photographed in no particular order. Shout out to Sue Langland LINK for this suggestion. Note that lesser known locals are deemed just as worthy as the superstars in this regard.

1. Parliament Funkadelic at Maverick's Flat, Crenshaw District, mid-1970s (and me without my camera!) Crazed beyond all comprehension. With the band dressed as Village People From Hell while pissing in great arcs aimed right at the audience and George Clinton wearing longjohns split at the crotch, P-Funk clearly was determined to terrify those on the dance floor...

Mott The Hoople, Hollywood Palladium (note exposed, uncircumsized hoople)

2. Mott the Hoople (original) at Hollywood Palladium. Yeah, they were great. Yeah, once upon a time. 

3. July, 1968 double bill of Moby Grape and the Jeff Beck group (original, with Rod Stewart and Ron Wood, etc.) at the Fillmore (at the Avalon...? Fillmore? 'can't remember, too much mind expansion.) Undocumented, my worst technical screw-up ever with a camera, not due to mind expansion at all but due to my first ever SLR, a newly acquired, used Edixa with horrid pre-set lenses and no instructions whatsoever except in German, which I didn't and to this day don't understand. A teen's eternal regret...

4. Rolling Stones at Inglewood Forum, 5th row (in front of Peter Fonda!) 1969. My first freebie ever as a journalist and due to its ad hoc invite, camera-less. My future better half sure got spectacular shots from there though!

She Rok, Club Lingerie (left, Mary Kay (also of The Dogs); right, Emi Canyn later of Motley Crue Nasty Habits)

5. H*O*T triple bill of The Pandoras see LINK for set highlight and pic, She Rok (best female metal band ever, just not as well known as Girlschool etc.) and "The Lousy Bummers," a jam band of Little Caesar and their chums in L.A.'s metal scene playing sterling covers (Edwin Starr, Thin Lizzy, Montrose, Big Brother & the Holding Co. etc.) all with the magnificence of Ron Young's vocals. Performers VERY oddly attired, most in their jammies, one clad only in a cabbie's hat and diapers with suspenders. The Bummers' set was equal parts chaos and majesty. I created their flyer with Mad Magazine's figurehead Alfred E. Newman as an acid-soaked hippie on it for this show. (Bummer!)

The Lousy Bummers mid-chaos, Club Lingerie; my flyer for same

 

6. Chainsaw in Naples, Italy, 2003. Triumphant L.A. punks' 28-years-after-the-fistfight-that-broke-up-the-band reunion versus amok Niapolitan Italian youths. Win-win!

Chainsaw, Slovenly Rock and Roll Bar, Napoli, Italy 2003

7. The Doors, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Hugh Masekela, Peter Paul & Mary all for one Yankee dollar ($1), Valley Theatre in the Round, the San Fernando Valley, 1967. Some benefit, acronym CAFF sponsored by Elliot Mintz, hence the high wattage. One of the earliest photos you'll catch on "Fastfilmblog," below, photo and caption appearing later in the book "Gram Parsons, A Music Biography" by Sid Griffin and John Delgatto, for which I did the art direction.

8. Iggy and The Stooges, Whisky A Gogo, 1973 way too much to convey, just go here: LINK Photo at top for the terminally lazy.

  9. The Faces, Hollywood Palladium, 1973 (see #3., Stewart and Wood.)

The Faces, Hollywood Palladium, Rod Stewart and Ron Wood (when we were Glam)

 

The Black Crowes (Chris Robinson) at the Greek Theatre, 2002

10. Oasis, the Black Crowes, Spacehog, "Brotherly Love" tour of battling siblings at the Greek Theatre, 2002. A Kinks' reunion at same would have made this show just so very complete. Oasis at the Greek Theatre, 2002

11. The Dogs, The Motels, The Pop, The Whisky A Gogo, 1977.  DIY punk trifecta sublimeness. I reviewed this for Performance Magazine so no pix, responsibility of others.
Sample DOGS' publicity of the era.

  12. The Who, end of the original Tommy tour, 1970, San Diego

  13. UPDATE! Jan. 16, 2015, solo gig of James Williamson and assorted artists, see LINK for entire rundown. Some of the best and yet lesser known Stooges' songs penned by Williamson and Iggy Pop ever, sung by some of the most passionate right now singers extant. Whew....

Lisa Kekaula (The BellRays) and James Williamson, J.W. and Jello Biafra, Alison Mosshart (The Dead Weather, The Kills) and J.W., Carolyn Wonderland and J.W., Ron Young (Little Caesar) and J.W., Joe Cardamone (The Icarus Line) and J.W.  Other singers included Jesse Malin, Cheetah Chrome and Frank Meyer!

To quote the seminal rock 'n' roll film Still Crazy, I await new thrills with bated breath...

JEFF BECK live

There was a time, say, 1967-2004, when any photograph of Jeff Beck from any era therein was interchangeable with any other photograph of Jeff Beck from any era therein. Not only was he one of the most influential guitarists ever, he also was one of the most consistent in his own image. Therefore when assigned to photograph his landmark tour with Stevie Ray Vaughn (photo: click LINK) I wanted to turn in something really different.

The above image, besides being black and white for the magazine's purposes was solarized, that is, a darkroom trick of allowing extra, all over light briefly to hit the photo paper after the initial visual was exposed. This develops areas that weren't supposed to be chemically developed. It was supposed to be a difficult to control process, but I banged out multiples of this image getting exactly what I wanted each time.

Besides showing Jeff Beck playing in the zone, my photo also has an otherwordly cast to its stage lighting from the oddness of the solarized black and white tones. I think it suits this most amazing of guitarists very well, and gets that zone thing down.

JEFF BECK, STEVIE RAY VAUGHN together live

photo (C) 1990 Heather Harris. Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughn jamming together at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. It was an odd gig for the minders to restrict photography: both artists were headliners who alternated top billing throughout the tour. We photographers were restricted to the usual first two songs only nonsense for each artist, but told we could stick around and photograph for the last two songs, which I figured would be the fun collaboration as depicted above. Surprisingly, few photo press stayed: perhaps they been so browbeaten into missing the best parts of all sets that they had just trundled out reflexively.