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The Bass Zone / Re: Gregg Philbin - REO - which bass?
« on: June 07, 2012, 11:34:54 PM »
My first concert at age 15 was shortly after that album came out. The old City Auditorium in St. Joe, Mo., which was so old I wasn't sure it would survive the show. Philbin played a Jazz as I recall, certainly not the Thunderbird.
A great show, it was basically exactly the same as the album. They were not famous yet and really rocked. I saw them again a couple of years later after "You Can Tune a Fish" came out, and while they hadn't gone completely soft yet success seemed to have taken the fire out of their performance. Bruce Hall was the bassist then, and he is a fine bass player, but they just didn't have the energy they had the first time. I saw them two nights in a row that year. Rainbow, with Ronnie James Dio, opened for them both nights. Blackmore smashed a guitar the first night. The second night they cut Rainbow short because they were filming REO for the Midnight Special (or maybe it was Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, my memory is hazy....). This was at Kemper Arena in Kansas City. I never saw that Midnight Special, so I don't know if it ever aired. I would love to see it.
Edit: this was it.
A great show, it was basically exactly the same as the album. They were not famous yet and really rocked. I saw them again a couple of years later after "You Can Tune a Fish" came out, and while they hadn't gone completely soft yet success seemed to have taken the fire out of their performance. Bruce Hall was the bassist then, and he is a fine bass player, but they just didn't have the energy they had the first time. I saw them two nights in a row that year. Rainbow, with Ronnie James Dio, opened for them both nights. Blackmore smashed a guitar the first night. The second night they cut Rainbow short because they were filming REO for the Midnight Special (or maybe it was Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, my memory is hazy....). This was at Kemper Arena in Kansas City. I never saw that Midnight Special, so I don't know if it ever aired. I would love to see it.
Edit: this was it.