JAE in Baltimore 2/3/96

[Name Redacted <xxxxx.xxxx@compuserve.com>]

Hi All,

I attended the JAE show Saturday night, "gotta kick with the band".
There were 200-250 people there and the place was hopping nuts way more than the
Lancaster, PA Monday night show and the North Jersey Thursday night show.  It
sems the rowdier the audience, the more Quiet John became.
Very little interaction between JAE and the crowd, which is how we know him.
JAE is the only guy I know who has his jeans and blue jean jacket dry-cleaned to
the max with ample startch.

I stood three people back just in front of his right hand as he went through his
usual set list minus a couple of his solo songs.  Had Enough, Success Story,
Trick of the Light, My Wife and Long Live Rock were serious highlights in the
night.  On these aforementioned songs, the lead singer became unnecessary
because the crowd chanted the words in an exquisitely tight, unified, seemingly
well-rehearsed shout.  The crowd became more the story than JAE because of the
way the crowd responded.  They danced, jumped, yelled to JAE between songs ad
infinitim.  This was the only one of the three concerts I saw where you could
not yell to JAE between songs because of the residual clapping and cheering
between songs.  JAE seemed to be less flashy this performance with his playing
but maybe that is because of my three visits in one week or him playing seven
nights straight.  Don't get me wrong, his fingers were so busy on each song that
it is a true testament of the mind willing the body to play.  No human can play
bass the way JAE can.  His fingers burned up the neck of the guitar.  Smoke
eminated from his hands.  Even a friend I took with me who was a neophyte with
JAE music before the concert, said he was strongly impressed with "Thunder
Fingers".  The Shaking All Over bass solo was truly the nights highlight next to
the crowd who made this concert a total concert experience where both band and
crowd feed off each other.  I was fortunate enough to shake Johns hand as he
high-fived at the end of the encore.  Sound quality was much improved.

My highlight for the three shows was Shaking All Over in North Jersey where JAE
brought the roof down with the solo at the end.  If anyone taped that solo, they
have "canned gold".

After the Baltimore concert, we went into the adjoining room and saw some
serious NC-17 dancing from the patrons.  To me, it was the bar with it all; the
memories from JAE and the mammaries from the females <G>.

After arriving home, I felt the standard let-down knowing that this page in the
Who's history has passed since I have to get back to my life now instead of
following JAE around.

"Place WAS really jumping to the Hi-Watt amps" - These were the kind of lyrics
the crowd really sang loud because we all knew that we were living the lyrics
and the legend.  Try that on for magic moment.

Larry