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Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4049
Location: Utah | Friday evening Peter Frampton was in concert in Wendover Nevada. They say Wendover is "just like Las Vegas, but closer". Uhhh, not quite like Vegas, but the venue turned out to be excellent. Not a bad seat in the house, with great acoustics. Getting to Wendover from SLC requires a two hour drive across the salt flats. It's pretty interesting, and if nothing else it reinforces that you've gotten away from suburbia.
Pete (all his friends call him Pete) played many of his old hits plus three songs from his new album (Fingerprints) and a couple of other songs (one Stones and one George Harrison). The songs from Fingerprints were pretty accurate to the album, whereas his older hits have been reworked and improved. They were completely identifiable, but expanded and modernized. He played a number of songs solo with just an acoustic guitar, and really filled the concert hall with music. That was impressive. At least to me it was. His acoustics included an older Gibson and a newer Breedlove.
He made good use of his Talk Box throughout the show. It was the first time I've ever seen one in person, and the overwhelming response I had was wondering how badly it vibrated his teeth.
His voice is rock solid and clear. Obviously he's not been a smoker. His prowess with the guitar is better than ever, and very impressive in person. Even after nearly two hours there was no reduction in energy or the quality of his performance.
One thing that really stood out was how much genuine fun he was having on stage. He interacted with the audience to a greater degree than most other musicians I've seen in concert, and he has a nice cutting British sense of humor. Frampton dealt with an abnoxious drunk with Churchillian wit and earned a standing ovation from the rest of the audience.
The parade of vintage Gibson guitars across the stage was impressive and made it that much more fun to watch and listen to. There were three different Les Pauls plus his signature LP. He also played an old semi-hollow Gibson on one or two songs. His other guitarist played a bunch of different guitars, among them a LP, a Strat, a mid 1960's Firebird, plus something I didn't recognize but would describe as sort of a reverse slant Firebird.
Frampton put a fair amount of effort into tweaking his sound onstage via the knobs on the guitars and stomp boxes, but it didn't distract from his playing or the show at all. Obviously he is a gear junky and likes to fine-tune his tone on the fly.
The bass player used a couple of vintage Fenders. The stage had a nice mix of vintage looking Marshall half-stacks and two very modern electronics racks with plenty of blinking lights.
The best description of his show is guitar-centric rock. Lots of energy and lots of creativity. No real special effects visually, like fireworks or movable stages rising up out of the fog. Just lots of great music (and a few seriously drunk/drugged fans). |
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Joined:
March 2005
Posts: 5563
Location: Blue Ridge Mountains | I recently caught one of his concerts on VH-1 classic; I was impressed as the last concert of his I had seen was in person at the concert for the filming of 'A Star Is Born" in Phoenix in 1976...he is a great prefotmer and my opinion is that he has just gotten better and better! Great Stuff! Great review Flysig! |
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Joined:
September 2004
Posts: 1180
Location: Vermont USA | I have seen him twice up here and both times he was just great well worth the time and money spent.
Pauly |
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Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 1330
Location: ms | I saw him back in the 70s, it was a good show. CDB opened up for Frampton i thought that was odd. |
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Joined:
November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | I was never a Frampton fan but, I believe Clifford played 'Fingerprints' at his home while entertaining guests... and I enjoyed it very much. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | I (pretty much)always liked Frampton.
When I was 17(no! NOT the song!), I used t'go to the NewYork side of Greenwood Lake (the lake straddles NY/NJ) because at the time, the drinking age in NY was 18 and 21 in NJ.
We used to frequent a club called T.G.'s. Frampton used to play there quite often. This was just after Humble Pie and the formative days(I think) of Frampton's Camel. He would put on some kick ass sets, and afterwards would hang at the bar & shoot the sh!t with us. Very nice guy! At the end of the night, he'd pile his gear into the back of a Chevy Vega wagon and drive off . . .
Year's later, I saw him at the Capitol in Passaic. At one of these shows, local DJ Scott Muni came out to introduce him and announced that his recently-released "ComesAlive" album had just gone Platinum. It was the beginning of the end.
"I'm in You" got winged out of a moving car into the Passaic River on the way home from HarmonyHut. Still had the price sticker on it.
The whole Robert Stigwood/"Sgt.Pepper"-thing pretty much killed Frampton's credibility (with me, anyway).
His later albums pretty much re-kindled alot of that.
Lose the poodle-head, lose the bullshit, & just play.
"Fingerprints" is a GREAT CD!!!
Last month, when we were driving to the Church of the Wandering Moose for Sunday Service, Beal was playing a latter-day Frampton CD in the Suburban that I'd never heard before, and was quite good, as well (which one WAS that, Bill??).
If y'ever get a chance to catch him live, he's definitely worth seeing. |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | That one was from 1993 years old.
It says Seasons Greetings from Relativity records Promotional copy, not for sale. It came from Hasselberger when he was first managing Adrian who also was on Relativity.
In side it says from the albun "Peter Frampton", coming soon on relativity. Tracks are (Day in the Sun, You can be sure, It all comes down to you, You can't take that away, Young Island, Off the hook, Waiting for your love, So hard to believe, Out of the blue, Sheltyer through the nifght, Changing all the time) |
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Joined:
April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | + 1 on Fingerprints. Excellent album (CD :D ) |
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Joined:
April 2003
Posts: 241
Location: Pewaukee, WI | I saw him on the Comes Alive tour, way back when (at the Summerfest grounds in Milwaukee). I've seen him a couple more times in the last few years and have tickets for Oct 11. Always a good show. |
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Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 627
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ | The career of Peter Frampton is so unique. Here's a guy who released albums that really never sold much or hit the charts. He releases a live performance album, that becomes the most popular live album ever. I think that's a great accomplishment that no other artist has pulled off. |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | good player and singer, however you look at it. |
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OT: Frampton concert is worth seeing
