The Talk Is On

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            The opening act was a local band that mostly did covers from Grand Funk Railroad’s first album, On Time. The singer had long hair and a headband, but the get-up was a wig and he removed it after the first song. Despite the phoniness of the beginning of that presentation, I thought the band played well and sounded good. Tig and I heard a great commotion at the entrance, almost directly under our seats. The disturbance turned out to be a small gang of young men who had stormed an unguarded gate and climbed over the locked door. One of the voices sounded familiar and turned out to be Billy D’s younger brother. After getting lost in the crowd, he spotted us and came over and talked for a little bit (offering us some “grass”) before disappearing again into the crowd.

            The first big league band on the bill was Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys, who had recently made the charts with a song called Good Old Rock ’N’ Roll. I don’t know what the deal was, and I really didn’t care, but the band never played its hit that night. Instead, the crowd was treated to a little over an hour’s worth of heady, progressive music. I was very impressed with the flute playing that figured into several songs. Cat Mother’s persona for the show was laid back, but the music was intense. I really liked what the band did.

            Before the second act could take the stage, a conflict began to emerge. A big part of Tig’s and my getting permission to go to the concert in the first place was our promise to be home near midnight. Well, Cat Mother hadn’t left the stage until nearly 9:30, and it was around 10 p.m. when Blue Cheer came on. I wanted to see the entire set and so did Tig, so we dug in. I had always liked Blue Cheer since their 1968 cover hit of Summertime Blues. The band played more covers than I had expected, including the Cream songs, Politician and Sitting On Top of the World. Blue Cheer played some hard-assed music and Tig and I decided to stay in hopes of hearing the Fudge after them.

            That was not to be because the next band to play was Big Brother and the Holding Company. Don’t get too excited. Janis was already long gone and had been replaced by a harmonica player. Neither Tig nor I expected too much from the band, and we really didn’t get that much, but the front man was unlike anything I’d ever seen in that he was great at talking to the audience and adding an additional angle to the show. That night was the first time I had ever heard anybody say “fuck” on stage (quite often, as I recall). The set lasted for nearly two hours.