Heaping Helping of TUNA

leftwinger57

I saw Hot Tuna Thursday night in one of the best indoor venues I'd ever been in and if you guys remember I tried listing all the shows w/ venues included I'd ever seen/heard. This place in south Jersey is called The Scottish Rites Auditorium and I over heard people call it the Red Rocks of indoor venues. It's seats only 1000 w/ no balcony and has graduated/ampitheater seating w/ the seats being offset so every seat is a good one. Sound was fantastic and everyone was in fine form. This was the largest line-up of Hot Tuna I've seen w/ Barry on mandolins, acoustic guitars and Tenor guitars, Larry Campbell on Telecaster, slide, peddle steel, mandolin, and acoustic guitars, Jack on his signature bass and Jorma changes up from Gibson Les Pauls' to a Fender JazzMaster, Martin acoustic, Larry's wife on vocals and the drummer Greg Stieb. Show started @7:30 and they played a mixed set for an hour and then took a quick 10/15 minute break and came back for another 90 minutes or so w/ doing some Dead tunes, Airplane tunes and a few fan favs like a searing Rock Me Baby and ended w/ a 20 minute jam of Funky #7 and came back for an encore. The place while a trek to get to is well worth it and even ticket prices were very reasonable w/ mine costing a whopping $41 w/ the service charge.

https://www.google.com/search?q=scottish+rites+auditorium&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=LAyMVNrKNpDnsATAgIKADw&ved=0CFwQsAQ&biw=1272&bih=887

leftwinger57

About those shows that I tried to list.

https://archive.org/post/1025378/turning-62-got-meloncohly

dromunds

You are a fortunate guy! I noticed that Larry and his wife were playing with them for a few shows, you're lucky they're with them in your area, I won't be so lucky. Larry was my favorite all-time musician with Bob Dylan (I've seen Dylan 50 times) and he is always a treat, his wife is a lovely addition. I always enjoy Tuna, see them every chance I can both electric and acoustic. Here's a shot from Rockford a couple years ago from the second row. (check out Jack's vintage amps)

drumminman

I love venues that size. The acoustics are typically very good, and much more intimate setting for the performers and audience. That looks like a good one.

leftwinger57

The 1st time I saw Larry was last July at Bergen PAC Center and he impressed me then. I did hear that he played w/ Dylan, Further, and a bunch of other A-listers. Just a few days ago there was tribute show for Springsteen on PBS. The show is 3 hours long and I missed most of it but I did notice that Larry was part of the house band so the guy gets around. His Tele work was unbelievable and when Jorma lets them stretch and work out then the magic happens. I thought G.E Smith was good but LC really buries him and would see any band he was in. The wife I guess is a package deal and see no need for her in TUNA. Seeing Jorma who changed up Les Pauls just about every tour coming out w/ the Fender JazzMaster was a great change and the tone was dead on perfect.

dromunds

Larry was in Dylan's band for a long time, he was by most accounts the best player Bob ever had and the band with Larry and Charley Sexton in the late 90's and early 00's was "one of the best in the land" as Bob used to say. Those shows were magical. He played with Levon Helm after that, and produced a few of his latter albums, and may have got a Grammy for at least one. He's done other producing, but he's such a multi-instrumentalist that he's just a marvel to watch and listen to. Catch him anytime you can. One of the most under-appreciated musicians of our time IMHO. (Although appreciated by musicians fer shur)