As of this week, the Rockforward Music blog has posted 308 times since we started watching all things roots-rock back in mid-2009. I’ve written and posted video about Indiana music, and bits from a more national perspective, that are either interesting to me, a bit odd, or maybe just some damn good, goosebump-inducing rock and roll that’s worth spending four minutes of your day on.
There ‘s been weeks when it has been all great rock video posts from YouTube. There’s been weeks when I have posted my diatribe on the uselessness/irrelevence of MySpace. Some weeks find me writing every day, some weeks produce one (though high-quality and award-winning) post.
And since we started, there have been two posts that reign as the most popular, day-after-day, stretching for months at a time. Their daily traffic many times surpasses the roots-rock news updates, the concert previews, the album reviews, the show reviews and even the the behind-the-scenes peeks at the sleazy underbelly of rock music that get passed to you, the reader.
One of these two popular posts (I will write about the other next week) has been a ten-minute, three-song live video featuring the legendary R&B/rock stylings of the J.Geils Band, recorded with one camera, close to the Fenway Park stage as the band opened for Aerosmith in August, 2010.
Why this video? My guess?
I don’t really know. In the big rock picture, J. Geils is, for right or wrong, not a huge band (and still waiting to get into the R&R Hall of Fame), though they picked up a second generation of fans with the “Centerfold”/”Freeze Frame” punch. It is a pretty clean side-stage shot, though only slightly above-average sound. A big, unique setup at an old baseball park, so that is intersting. The bill is shared with Aerosmith. It is a vintage, interesting, from-the-soul performance. It is all those things. But why this more traffic-worthy than of the other 307 entries, many of which took a whole lot more time to write than putting the one video on the blog.
Truthfully? I have no fuckin’ idea.
But I like it.
And the nicely trashy rumor at the show was that J. Geils singer Peter Wolf got into a heated argument with Aerosmith front dude Steven Tyler before the show after Wolf was told he couldn’t take his moves and romps onto the ramp that stretched into the crowd – only Tyler was going to be doing that.
Watch the video: Wolf uses the ramp.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L_GeBGITxw]
Fenway Park
VIDEO: J. Geils Band at Fenway Park – 3 songs
The J. Geils Band is one of the great rock and roll bands of all-time – and I ain’t bullshittin’ ya. A band’s legacy isn’t worthy of a title like that unless they come with it live, night after night, tour after tour. And they did. Sweaty, R&B, bluesy rock and roll. Frontman Peter Wolf is deserving of every accolade you might hear about Mick Jagger or Robert Plant or Steven Tyler.
The band is back this summer for some dates, and played a double-bill with Tyler’s Aerosmith at Fenway Park last Saturday. Wolf and the Geils boys opened. They fought some odds: It was daytime, the crowd wasn’t crazy drunk, and the small stadium is still a cavernous place to see a rock show. But the J. Geils Band still has it. Wolf is still Wolf. And here is a video we found of the end of “Lookin’ for Love” and all of “Whammer Jammer”, and “Ain’t Nothin’ But A Houseparty”, together in one long, take-me-there video. Shot side stage by a videographer from the Boston Phoenix alternative paper.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L_GeBGITxw]
NOTES: According to Boston.com, Tyler didn’t want Wolf to use the ramp that extended into the audience and told him so the night before the show. According to a source, the singers had a “heated argument’’ in the outfield as a few dozen workers put the finishing touches on the stage Friday. In the end, Tyler relented, but he told Wolf to also get the OK from Joe Perry, which Wolf did.