Frampton Lights Steve Miller’s Flame

The Berkshires’ Tanglewood Invites Classic Rock Legends to Party.

July 3, 2018.

Often times, when two major acts from 1976 join together to go on a North American tour around 40 years after their prime, it’s a money grab and go. The wait to a concert that flipped your switch in adolescence can be an unsure excitement. The confused enthusiasm received from these shows comes from a place where Bob Dylan and Paul Simon still tour the world despite the energy that has been rung out with all of the drops of youth on the floor. At some point, some acts should know that that sponge is dry.

But obviously people still go to these shows, because besides what is played on the radio today, the general population is too lazy to look for new music. The pop-infested radio of today piles the charts full of music put together on a computer, music that people that listened to and still listen to Frampton and Miller are simply not interested in. Instead they listen to Classic Vinyl as it’s an easy bridge to the music that they like. Of course there are still loads of great rock bands out there, but the gap created between the Hits 1 type and Classic Vinyl is where great, poorly recognized modern rock bands like J Roddy Walston and The Business and Rival Suns fall into. So for the majority of the population that attends classic rock shows, they’re simply hanging on to the idea of the music that they love despite the sound of the actual act.

With all of that in mind, I prepared myself to attend the Steve Miller with Peter Frampton concert at Tanglewood in the outer sectors of Lenox, Massachusetts. The crowd, as expected, was handsomely filled with the mean age at an over-under of somewhere around 50. That stat isn’t to take away from the young ones at the show as there was an adequate amount of children with parents and grandparents in a classic Tanglewood family-friendly fashion.

The Tanglewood venue, impressive by itself, is on a great grass patch in a space on the border between Lenox and Stockbridge that epitomizes the experience of the Berkshires. Families, bearing the brutal Eastern US heatwave in this summer of 2018, sat on the lawn on the left and right sides of the seating area having picnics awaiting the show to start. At around 7:50, the first ringing of the bells rang throughout the place signalling for people to begin heading into seats, or get situated if they were to be enjoying the concert from the peripheral view of the stage.

What felt like 5 minutes later, the second bell was distributed through the seats, and as the light decreased, the applause and hollers increased. The large Frampton backdrop including his signature 1954 Gibson Les Paul Custom “Black Beauty” looked down upon the stage while the four members of Peter Frampton’s band walked from the left into their own corridors of the stage setup. Out of a slightly hidden entrance at the far right of the stage, a quite skinny man of 5’8’’ cruised onto stage with a Cherry Red Gibson ES-335 that amplified the juxtaposition between the size of the guitar and himself.

Photo credits to Hilary Scott

Peter Frampton gave a few thankful gestures and waves before the first crash of the symbol by drummer Dan Wojciechowski symbolizing the start to a show that I admittingly was unsure of. But from the starting riffs and progressive rhythm to “Something’s Happening,” Peter Frampton grew back his 70s hairdo, and the classic rocker sounded like himself. Closed eyes would say that the sound was something from a B-side of his 8x Platinum selling album “Frampton Comes Alive!”

The act continued on with their set, and the crowd was drawn in. Frampton had a loose environment to his entire act where all pieces worked together to create raw entertainment. He killed the songs, his voice sounded spectacular, he ripped licks on his guitars, and his interim comments between songs raised laughter in the audience. With “Lines on My Face,” the band displayed their range with this soft tune describing a person’s confusion with their lover’s comments. Following, an instrumental of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” of which Peter Frampton dedicated to the late Chris Cornell.

Frampton stuffed his hits with tasteful solos where he bounced off of the other members of his band. The vibe of the entire band created a sense of fellowship where the audience could feel genuine happiness through the amplifiers as the band leader did not dominate over the other sounds on stage.

The 70s song “(I’ll Give You) Money” can be described as overlooked on the wildly successful live album of Frampton’s, but the jam session that broke out after a couple of choruses brought out an unexpected hero in Adam Lester on guitar. Lester and Frampton traded licks back and forth for the better half of the song, keeping the crowd entertained in between. With songs and dancing in between, the crowd heard “How about some Humble Pie?” Referring to his earlier music years in the British group with Steve Marriott, they played a bluesy “Four Day Creep” in light of the band.

Finally, Frampton brought out his famous Gibson Black Beauty, explaining how he lost the guitar in a cargo plane crash, then retrieved it over 30 years later. He closed with his timeless hit, “Do You Feel Like We Do” jamming away with keyboardist Rob Arthur. On a loud ending note, Frampton hit the last chord, raised his fists in the air, and was off to backstage.

Personally blown away by the opener, I saw that everyone else was too with smiles on their faces and volume in their eyes. Peter Frampton completely blew the hinges off of the door, and he set Steve Miller up perfectly for the winning touchdown. After some schmoozing, bathroom breaks, and beverage runs, everyone was making their way back to their seats for the main event. The couple of bells rang and out came the joker.

He opened up with “The Stake” followed by “True Fine Love.” By the time “Abracadabra” swung on, the high from Peter Frampton had worn off. There was something off in the beginning of that set. Maybe he hadn’t gotten warmed up or something of the like, but the first 5 songs of Steve Miller’s set was frankly dry.

After Miller slowed the tone down from a rockin’ opening act, who better to stir up the crowd than the British ball of joy from half an hour ago? Out came the small-framed Frampton with the big-framed Gibson ES-335. After some small talk and laughs by the two long-time friends, they kicked off with some Freddie King blues, and the house was rocking once again.

Photo credits to Hilary Scott

After the two songs with Frampton, he was dismissed and Steve Miller rightfully took Frampton’s spark and ran with it. He revved up the engine with songs like “Serenade” and “Dance Dance Dance.” After he fixed what I believed to be just a matter of warming up, Miller delivered the distinct twang in his voice that sometimes could compare to a soft version of David Lee Roth’s chords.

Steve Miller’s band (Not to be confused with the Steve Miller Band) kept the steady rhythm and groove going through the night with sing along songs that brought a Saturday to a Monday. A perfect version of “Rock’n Me” that had a karaoke type feel to it left no in the crowd with their mouth shut. An excited crowd made their way closer towards the stage until the security guards completely let off their guard to where fans were crowding at Steve Miller’s feet shouting, “Keep on rock’n me baby!” over and over and over again. The band ended sharply to the song and exited the stage, leaving the crowd anxiously awaiting their encore.

The band did not wait long to break out the jazzy intro to their ‘76 smash hit “Fly Like an Eagle.” Surprisingly the band turned what is normally a very mellow and up-in-the-air into the rock sound that they had been playing throughout the night. Finally came “Jet Airliner” summing up the entire night of retro hits. The final song was played straight through, with fans still going wild at his feet.

“Peace, love, happiness,” said Miller in his last lines of the show before handing out high-fives and departing the stage. In a night with lots of timeless hits, it was the extra effort that got people fired up. It’s that extra effort that Peter Frampton, 68, was able to distribute into the audience that made the night special. All in all, these two acts pulled it off. They’re not quite at that tipping point just yet, but need to be careful and mindful of legacy at the end of the day. Where youth now comes in is in the spirit. People can feel spirit through music, which is what makes it so popular. Music is there to turn a Monday into a Saturday, and it’s the passion, spirit, and groove that makes it stick.