A little more than two months after seeing Cream at Yale’s Woolsey Hall in New Haven, the second time I had seen them live in about six months, the group was booked to play two shows — afternoon and evening — at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, Connecticut on June 15. It was the next-to-last show of an exhausting … Continue reading Concerts, Vol. 5: Farewell Cream
In Concerts Vol. 3, I wrote about the single concert performance that was probably the best out of hundreds I’ve attended and certainly the most influential: Cream at the Psychedelic Supermarket in Boston, September, 1967. That wouldn’t be the only time I would see this amazing trio. I was lucky enough to see them three … Continue reading Concerts Vol. 4: Heavy Cream
I mentioned in Concerts Vol. 1 that one of my earliest major influences from a live show was seeing the Paul Butterfield Blues Band at the Cafe Au Go Go in the winter of 1966-67. That remains true but there was a series of concerts that had an even bigger impact for me. I saw Cream play … Continue reading Concerts Vol. 3: Fresh Cream
In early August, 1969, there was quite a buzz about Woodstock. I don’t believe anyone, even at that late date, anticipated how big it was going to be. At least not among my friends. Most of us were not planning on a trip to … Continue reading Concerts Vol. 14: Led Zeppelin
By the fall of 1968, I had seen Cream four times, another of my favorite artists The Paul Butterfield Band five times, The Electric Flag with Mike Bloomfield, Traffic, The Stones, The Beach Boys, among a host of other artists, but I had yet to see Jimi Hendrix. Two members of the Bram Rigg Set, … Continue reading Concerts Vol. 13: Jimi Hendrix
About six months after writing a series of pieces in 2009 on Cream concerts I’ve been to, I was contacted by Ken Melville. Ken was in the band Catharsis in Boston in September, 1967 and opened for Cream for their one-week run of concerts at the Psychedelic Supermarket in Kenmore Square, just a stone’s throw … Continue reading Cream at the Psychedelic Supermarket, 1967 & more
After the breakup of Cream in 1968, it became a point of fascination to see what was next for the three members. Eric Clapton got together with Steve Winwood to form Blind Faith, which lasted from late 1968 to the end of the summer of ’69, producing one album and an ill-fated tour. He then … Continue reading Concerts, Vol. 12: Jack Bruce and Friends
Winter and spring of 1968 in Boston was a particularly memorable and remarkable time for me as far as the music to which I was exposed. My group Pulse opened for the Lovin’ Spoonful at the Back Bay Theatre; I saw Michael Bloomfield’s Electric Flag at the Psychedelic Supermarket, where I had earlier first seen … Continue reading Concerts Vol. 11: Traffic
A friend of mine has asked me several times to write about what I felt was the most disappointing concert I’d ever been to. I’ve already mentioned a couple, Poco at the Shakespearean Theatre in Stratford, CT, mostly because of the horrendous acoustics, and the fourth Cream concert I went to in 1967-68 at the … Continue reading Concerts Vol. 10: Zappa and Zappa
In the spring of 1968 I was studying at Berklee School of Music in Boston and going back to Connecticut on weekends to rehearse and play out on the club circuit with Pulse. I lived on upper Commonwealth Avenue, not far from the dorm I had lived in when I was at Boston University, with two … Continue reading Concerts Vol. 8: The Doors