Michael Borbridge and Crowbar Productions present a Benefit for Freddie Roulette
2016-01-11
Great American Music Hall
859 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, CA 94109-7005
8:00 PM, Monday, January 11, 2016

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[7:58 PM lights down, announcements by Michael Borbridge and Crowbar aka Kurt Kanga]

1. [7:59 PM] Iceman (DA)
2. [8:06 PM] ? “Stand up” (RB)
   [add Bill Noteman]
3. [8:12 PM] I Dreamed About Mama Last Night (BN)
4. [8:18 PM] Going Back to New York City (LL)
   [add Henry Kaiser]
5. [8:24 PM] the Butcher Boy (BM)
   [set ends 8:36 PM]

• David Aguilar: guitar, vox (t01);
• Peter Albin: bass, vox (t02);
• Roy Blumenfeld: drums;
• Henry Kaiser: guitar (t05);
• Grandpa Banana AKA Lowell Levinger: keyboards, vox (t04);
• Barry Melton: guitar, vox (t05);
• Jose Najera: congas, percussion;
• Bill Noteman: harmonica (t03-05) , vox (t03) ;

[8:48 PM Crowbar introduces some of the band, then dead air for a couple minutes]

1. [8:50 PM] Crawfish City
   [add RB, BC, TH]
2. [8:57 PM] Master of Disaster
3. [9:04 PM] Built for Comfort #
   [add BN]
4. [9:15 PM] Kind-Hearted Woman
5. [9:23 PM] Shake Your Moneymaker
   [set ends 9:32 PM with thanks and announcements from Crowbar]

• Roy Blumenfeld: drums (t02-05);
• Baron Chase : bass (t02-05) ;
• Terry Haggerty: guitar (t02-05) ;
• Bill Noteman: harmonica (t04-05);
• Carlos Reyes: violin;
• Roy Rogers: acoustic guitar, acoustic slide guitar, # 12-string resonator guitar (t03), vox.

[9:41 PM lights down, announcements]

1. [9:42 PM] Spoonful
2. [9:54 PM] Up Above My Head (I Hear Music in the Air)
3. [9:59 PM] White Freightliner Blues
   [drop MW, add Snooky Flowers and Freddie Roulette]
4. [10:07 PM] On Broadway
5. [10:16 PM] Cissy Strut »
6. [10:25 PM] Sleepwalk
   [set ends 10:33 PM]

• Roy Blumenfeld: drums;
• Cornelius “Snooky” Flowers: baritone saxophone (t04-06);
• Steve Kimock: guitar, lap steel guitar;
• Henry Kaiser: guitar;
• Jose Najera : congas, percussion;
• Freddie Roulette: lap steel guitar (t04-06);
• Pete Sears: keyboards;
• Melody Walker: vox (t01-03).

[10:43 PM lights down, Crowbar introduces the band]

1. [10:44 PM] ? (unintelligible blues) (FR)
2. [10:52 PM] Lucille (FR)
3. [11:00 PM]? “I found out what I hated to discover” / “don't need you now” (WS)
   [drop MB, BC; add new drummer with black beret, MW swap bone to bass]
4. [11:11 PM] ? Mississippi River Blues: “Blues find my baby” / “get together on the Mississippi side” (FR)
5. [11:21 PM] Crosscut Saw
   [drop WS, add Walter Hand, ? New drummer too?]
6. [11:29 PM] Little Red Rooster
   [drop WH, MW; add BC, Joli Valenti]
7. [11:39 PM] Tush (JV)
   [set ends 11:46 PM]
    
   Encore
   [drop SF, add WS, ?PA? Guitar]
8. [11:47 PM] Sleepwalk
   [show ends 11:55 PM with thanks and announcements from Michael Borbridge]

• ?: drums (t04-t08);
• : guitar (t08);
• Michael Borbridge: drums (t01-03);
• Baron Chase : bass (t01-03, t07-08);
• Cornelius “Snooky” Flowers: baritone saxophone (t01-07);
• Walter Hand (t06) : harmonica, vox;
• Rich Kirch: guitar;
• Jose Najera: congas, percussion;
• Freddie Roulette: lap steel guitar, vox;
• Will Scarlett: harmonica (t01-t05), vox (t03);
• Pete Sears: keyboards;
• Joli Valenti (t07): vox, percussion;
• Michael Warren: trombone (t01-03), bass (t04-06).

• Lester Chambers: harmonica, percussion, vox;
• Mic Gillette: trumpet, trombone;
• Nick Gravenites: guitar, vox; (illness)
• Wavy Gravy: emcee, comedian.

Well hot damn, we had a good time at the old music hall tonight! With a long list of Bay Area heavyweights lending their support, I was expecting to have fun, and for the most part, everybody delivered in spades. Michael and Crowbar really kept things moving along smartly – short breaks are important when you're trying to squeeze in four sets of music featuring an ever-rotating cast!

The entire show was pretty awesome, but a few tunes really stood out. Set one ended with a psychedelic guitar freakout (courtesy of Henry Kaiser, natch) on Died for Love, as Barry Melton belted out the lyrics like a man possessed. Likewise, Shake Your Moneymaker, the final tune of the second set was a boiling rave-up. The combination of Roy's slide guitar and Carlos' violin had practically everybody in the house doing the dirty bop. At one point I would have thought it strange to so many heads doing the old folks boogie, but now that I'm curating my own collection of grey strands, it doesn't seem so strange. We've had a lifetime of practice, and we all recognize quality performance when it happens. C'mon everybody, time to get up off of that thing and levitate!

Opening set three with Spoonful was a master stroke, setting the bar high, right where set two had left off. Somehow, I hadn't considered that Melody Walker might also be a blues singer, but she definitely convinced me that she fits that role just fine. And the combination of Kaiser and Kimock? Heavenly!

My guess is that the second half of the PGC set and all of set four was a more or less spontaneous, unrehearsed jam session, as this portion of the night evinced a distinctly looser feel than the earlier part of the show. By the time set four got going, the crowd had thinned noticeably, but that didn't stop the musical guests from amping things up (a showman's always gotta top his predecessor, right?), and this was particularly evident first with Cross Cut Saw, then Little Red Rooster and then Tush. Walter Hand definitely made a splash both singing and blowing his harp, but “young” Joli Valenti wasn't gonna take any of that, and did his best to whip up a frenzy in everybody both onstage and off. Mission accomplished, I'd say!

By this time, Michael Borbridge seemed desperate to wrap things up – maybe the house set a Monday Night curfew at midnight? – but Freddie Roulette was having none of that, and insisted on playing a second rendition of Sleepwalk. Heck, it seemed to me that Freddie was ready to play all night. I know I was ready to keep on dancing!

Anyways, I'd be remiss if I wrote this without mentioning the sad reason for this festive affair: in November, Freddie 's house caught fire, and he lost many of his possessions. If you're inclined to make a small contribution to his well-being, I'm certain that it would be appreciated, but I'm sorry to say I can't point you to any obvious URL – I looked hard, and found nothin'. I guess the simple thing is to tell you to go some of his CD's!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2016 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2016 event list! ☸ On to the next event!