Ronnie Montrose

[Rick and Roll]

Saw him this past Saturday at the Ramshead Tavern in Annapolis MD. Love that place, seats about 100-150 I guess. My friend always snags one of the three front tables. Seen Kaki King, Happy The Man, Phil Keaggy, dada, Holdsworth, Ponty, Travers, from that table. I was two feet from his guitar neck!

I had long admired his music, and he's had several distinct phases of his career. My favorite is the Open Fire period where he got jazzy and somewhat electronic. He played none of that. In fact he only did songs off of two records, Montrose and Paper Money, 30 years ago! It was 75 minutes of start to finish blistering rock and roll. Sitting with my feet on the floor amp, drinking a stout...nice. Spaceage Sacrifice, I Got The Fire, Rock Candy...good shit.

His band was great. The bassist, Dave Ellefson, and the drummer, Jimmy DeGrasso, were in Megadeth, and are great musicians, I'd estimate in their mid-40's. The singer, Keith St. John, is a bit of a Coverdale clone but as Montrose said "He sings the songs like nobody's business". He's been around the block too.

The best part of the show was a ripping lead by Ronnie, all the sudden stopped. He looks at his hand and shouts, "I TOLD YOU TO BEHAVE"! Then he plays for about 10 more senconds, stops, and says, "That's more like it"! New meaning to talking to the hand I say....

Tasteful like Frampton, Morse, yet rock and roll. I could ask for no more...

[roger]

very cool, Rick, and I'm majorly jealous. though I don't know much of the other stuff besides Open Fire, it sounds like a great show.