Jan. 12, 1979 Gusto review: J. Geils Band and Southside Johnny and the Asbury Juke at Shea's Buffalo

 

A show that must have raised the midwinter air temperature in downtown Buffalo by at least 10 degrees.

Jan. 12, 1979 review

High intensity J. Geils performance wows crowd in Shea’s Buffalo

         They came 2,700 strong to party in Shea’s Buffalo Thursday night and the J. Geils Band did not disappoint them. The Bad Boys from Boston drove proceedings to a frenzy from the moment they set foot on stage and didn’t let it stop until they’d gotten a triple encore.

         They’re old pros at this kind of thing. The band is rolling into its 10th year with the same six-man lineup. Though their albums and their fortunes have blown hot and cold, the intensity of their live performances is a guaranteed fact. When their coliseum-sized approach is jammed into the confines of a concert hall, it just becomes more charged with energy. Shea’s positively reverberated in the face of their attack.

         The crowd was electrified by singer Peter Wolf. They leaped to their feet cheering as he took his microphone for the first number. They clapped when he clapped. They sang back in the chorus of old favorites like “Lookin’ for a Love.” They reached to touch him at the edge of the stage.

         “‘You can’t raise the pit. That crowd will be just like animals,’ that’s what they told me,” Wolf said, standing on the raised orchestra pit during the encores. Wolf had been even bolder than that. He plunged into the front row seats as fans reached to ruffle him during “Must’ve Got Lost.” Nearly got mobbed, but he retreated only when the spotlight couldn’t follow him.

         Wolf was in black and white. So was the stage set. The drums and the keyboards of their old all-white layout stood against a backdrop of black amplifiers, drum risers and curtains, all illuminated with a blazing array of lights.

         The singer started in a black and white striped blazer and encored in a glittering black and silver jacket. Once he donned a blue J. Geils Band Live tour robe, then used it to fan down the heat of Magic Dick’s harmonica on his big rave-up solo number, “Whammer Jammer.”

         The fast-stepping Wolf broke one microphone stand as he pole-vaulted around the stage. He abandoned his habit of jive talking between numbers, settling instead for an extended rap about the tragedy of unrequited love leading to “Must’ve Got Lost.”

         The stage personality of the rest of the band has grown more streamlined. Magic Dick was a sudden, sizzling blaze of harmonica under his big halo of curly hair and his sunglasses. Stephen Bladd was chief signal-caller, cracking drumbeat segues from one song to the next, jolting the crowd higher in anticipation of Wolf’s next vocal.

         J. Geils himself took a couple solos high on the neck of his arrow-shaped guitar and laid tasty riffs over the opening drums of tunes like “Love-itis.” Keyboardman Seth Justman and bassist Danny Klein played less conspicuous supporting roles.

         Wolf’s high-voltage approach pumped up the slower-paced songs from the new “Sanctuary” album. The band generally resisted the oncoming middle-aged slump, but not even Bladd could keep the beat from sagging on the first encore – the Supremes’ 1964 hit “Where Did Our Love Go.”

         The slowest thing about Geils was the time they took during intermission. An hour’s break followed the single encore by Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, long enough to cool down whatever fervor the New Jersey band had raised in the Geils fans.

         It was hard to believe that Southside Johnny Lyon was laid out in blood transfusions and six hours of surgery back on Nov. 13. Despite his bandaged left hand, gashed and paralyzed when he fell on a broken glass on stage in Sacramento, he didn’t play invalid.

         Dressed in black, the singer shed his leather coat early and danced incessantly about the stage, throwing his mike stand around, shoving up against one or the other of his guitar players to bawl a harmony. Behind him, a five-man horn section turned in time to the music and punched out the rhythm.

         The Jukes worked up such steam that they practically blew beyond the rhythm and melody of “Talk to Me,” one of the hot songs on their new “Hearts of Stone” album. However, it took a couple familiar older tunes – “Fever” and “I Don’t Want to Go Home” – from their debut album to win the crowd completely. They capped it with Sam Cooke’s 1962 hit, “Havin’ a Party.” They couldn’t have called it better.

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IN THE PHOTO: The J. Geils Band in 1979.

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FOOTNOTE: The J. Geils Band had just left Atlantic Records to release "Sanctuary" on EMI America. Their rocket to mainstream immortality came a year later with their hit single, "Love Stinks." Peter Wolf then left the group in 1983 and they disbanded two years after that. They've had various reunions since 1999. Despite five nominations for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they haven't been voted in yet. When it happens, John Warren Geils Jr. won’t be there to see it. He died in 2017.

Meanwhile, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes also were in transition, but not the good kind. Southside Johnny Lyon's injury prompted their record label, Epic, to drop them. And then there was the departure of E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt, who had been their manager, producer and guiding light. Lyon has pressed on through many personnel changes in the band, releasing new albums and keeping an active tour schedule. February saw them play two sold-out shows at the Stone Pony, the storied club in Asbury Park, N.J., to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

J. Geils' Buffalo date doesn't get any kind of mention on setlist.fm and there are no setlists at all for Southside Johnny on this tour. Here's what J. Geils played Jan. 19 in Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati.

 

Just Can't Wait

(unknown)

Southside Shuffle

Somebody

Sanctuary

One Last Kiss

Teresa

Wild Man

Lookin' for a Love

Must of Got Lost

Give It to Me

(unknown)

Whammer Jammer

Ain't Nothin' but a House Party

Where Did Our Love Go

Start All Over Again

Love-itis

(encore)

First I Look at the Purse