[RoJo]

Hi everybody,

yesterday I have been to the Frankfurt gig. As my only comparison would be the Splinter Group in spring 2003 there wer some surprises, most of them positive I have to say.

The gig took place in an old rock club with a capacity of may be 300 people. It was filled with about 200. A nameless (nobody introduced them) power trio played some covers in Hendrix, Cream style as warm up.

When Peter and the band entered the stage I first was surprised how good his voice sounded. Clear but raher low in the mix. No comparison to the mumbling of the Splinter gig. Towards the end of the concert, however, he got some problems with the voice which "broke" from time to time. The sound was good, every instrument could be clearly heard, although the keyboards wer a bit high and voice and rhythm guitar a bit low in the mix. Most of the concert Peter played a beautiful guitar looking like a Les Paul (Mike Dodd asked him "where did you get this guitar from?" and Greenie answered dryly: "From a guitar shop") . The playing was controlled, very concentrated and just beautiful, slightly jazzy tone... He really played lead and all the solos. And he never disappeared musically for some time unlike in the Splinter days.

I did not make notes as I wanted to enjoy the music so I can not provide a complete set list, but the following songs were played:

Blues don't change
Key to the highway
Sweet Marie (Dylan)
Long grey mare
Sitting in the rain (Mayall)
...
....
Oh well, morphing into Albatross
...
Stranger blues
Black magic woman
The thrill is gone
Rainy night in Georgia
The stumble

The middle section contained some songs I could not recognize, ranging from roots-rock to even gospel (not my favourites but may be my taste is too one-dimensional). Sitting in the rain (the old Mayall single with Green, McVie and Dunbar from 66) was a surprise. The voice fit very well to the song. Also Oh well plus Albatross worked very well. Oh well sounded very different than in the old days. Danny Kirwan's wild soloing is missing and Peter plays much more controlled. The nicest surprise was The Stumble as the final encore as I already missed this song.

The band played really well and tight. Mike Dodd continued to animate the audience (and Peter) but it was OK. He was the only one moving on stage, the others just playing their instruments. The visual impression would have been too static without that. The only annoying thing was that the sound man tried to crank up the volume during Stranger Blues destroying the good ballance of sound and producing some feed back.

We and I think most of the audience went home happy after more than one and a half hour of Greeny music even if the middle part of the set was a bit quiet.

On our way to the subway station we heard a young guy who also just left the club answering to some girls "I have just been to a 60 plus party!". No, it was not really like this. Maximum 50 plus...

Greetings from Germany
Roland