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Winters Gives ‘High Energy’ ShowBy JAY HARLOW As I walked into Winter!and Saturday night to hear Edgar Winter. Grin, and Earthquake. 1 suddenly felt as if I were in a flashback to the late 1960’s. I could have sworn I was hearing Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company. In fact, it was a band that had not been on the advance bill. Their name was Pearl (not coincidentally, the name of Janis’ last album), and the resemblance to Big Brother was complete.The lead singer used exactly the same type of phrasing and tonal qualities as Janis. and the lead guitarist had Sam Andrews' solos down pat. It is one thing to imitate another hand’s style, but I have never heard such a precise replication before As a finale, they did “Piece of My Heart. which was virtually indistinguishable from the recorded version. Unoriginal, but interesting.Earthquake, a Berkeley band, was next. This band is essentially a bunch of non-stars trying to be superstars. All of the elements were there-sex-symbol lead singer, gymnastic lead guitarist, and so on-but it just didn’t come off too well. Their sophisticated lyrics included such masterpieces as Do It. ‘Shake Your Tail, and “I Feel Too Good.CYowd Eats It Up They’re not really bad. it’s just that there are hundreds of bands just like Earthquake (some of them better! playing high school dances everywhere. So who wants to hear a high school dance band at Winterland? Obviously someone does, because the Winterland crowd, with its usual Impeccable taste, ate it up.Grin was billed as featuring Nils Lofgren. a guitarist who has played backup on solo albums by-people like Stephen Stills. He now has his own band, which is competent but not too exciting. The brightest moments were his dupts with the other guitarist, including one number where they faced one another, each fingering his own guitar while picking Ihe other's.Once or twice they tried some mellower music with Lofgren on the piano, but were almost drowned out by rowdies in the audience shouting for Edgar Winter. So, they finished with some morerock, complete with Lofgren doing flips on stage off a mlni-trampoline.Following the usual announcements and Bugs Bunny cartoons, the Edgar Winter Band took the stage. Backed up by Ronnie Montrose on guitar. Dan Hartman on bass, and Chuck Ruff on drums. Winter came on playing an ARP synthesizer keyboard which hung on a strap around his neck. He also played alto sax on some numbers, as well as helping the drummer out on timbales from time to time.Wide Sound Range He achieved quite a range of sounds from the ARP. from fairly conventional electric piano to wierd electronic manipulations. At one point he laid it down on the stage, took a few steps back and pounced on the keys for a while, then spent a few minutes at the controls, rendering all sorts of sounds from the machine.Most of the time, however, he stuck to piano-style accompaniment and leads. Vocal duties were shared by Winter and Hartman, who also pitched in on guitar once or twice. The rest of the time, the guitar work was handled expertly by Montrose, one of the best I have heard.On a long version of Tobacco Road he and Winter squared ofT. eyeball lo eyeball, talking to each other, matching guitar and vocal licks. They finished their set with an old rock roll standard. “New Orleans.”The audience, which had not sat down once since the band first came on, demanded an encore, so the band returned with “Rock Roll Boogie Woogie Blues from their newest album, “They Only Come Out at Night. A second ovation brought them on again, this time with another new tune. “Undercover Man.”An acquaintance of mine, himself a musician, describes Edgar Winter’s style as high-energy music.’’ which seems to me accurate. Whether they are playing blues, hard rock, or experimental sounds, this band is not intended for casual background music. Rather, the listener is engulfed in the music and overpowered, and eventually released. Nearly everyone at Winterland was eager to dive in again and again.
Newspaper Details
Stanford Daily
Stanford, California, US
Thu, Feb 08, 1973
Page 5
Full Page
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Anonymous
CA, USA 23 Dec 2017
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