Well, I decided to go to Junefest and check out JW. I was able to scam some back stage passes via a connection and have this report.
Junefest is an annual concert put on by one of the local LV radio stations,
KKLZ. This year, the lineup was:
Joe's set was puzzling to me. At festivals, you tend to have lots of people who vaguely know your catalog. In addition, most artist play their hard edged songs.
The set was (to the best of my knowledge):
Joe's set started with a relatively obscure slow song. This was a suprise. I expected him to open with Walk Away or Funk #49. My buddy thought after the show the All Night Long would have been a good opener. The three songs that have asterisk really chase much of the crowd away. The show started at 11:30a and by the time Joe took the stage at 8:30p, slow songs were the last thing they wanted to hear.
Joe's performance was ok. (my friend differs with me here. He thought the
performance was ok at best. ) The songs picked were good for a Joe Walsh
fan like me. He had Timothy Drury, Scott Crago, Rick the Bass Player, and
a horn section for support. Lots of stuff was rearranged to take advantage
of the horns. In particular, the drum "solo" of Funk #49 was played on the
horns. Joe was technical good.
Other observations:
Stu Cook (of CCR) and Joe talked backstage. Didn't hear any of their conversation.
I wanted to get my picture taken with Joe but didn't. Joe always seemed to be talking to someone else and I didn't want to but in. I saw Joe head for the portapotties and debated on corner him on the way out. I decided that the man need some space to at least perform bodily function without fans harass him.
Joe has a wee bit of a belly. He made me look svelte. One of the changes to LBG was a reference to being locked in his limo in case a big mac attacks.
Joe wore sweats and some sort of nice sweatshirt on stage.
The port concert fireworks started in the middle of Rocky Mountain Way. Joe never "thanked" the crowd after the show. Don't know if he was pissed about the fireworks or was making a quick exit.
I think two of the asterisk songs could have been replaced by Life In The Fastlane and Allnight Long.
After the first or second song, Joe asked everyone up front to take two steps back because people were getting crushed. He said he couldn't perform with people getting hurt. Everyone cooperated.
Joe was guzzling lots of......water on stage.
Song selection definitely hurt the crowd response.
That's it from this reporter.....
