Although I've seen him on two or three occasions as part of the E-Street Band, I had never seen Nils Lofgren in his own right, so I was looking forward to catching him at Whitley Bay Playhouse last night. Nevertheless I almost missed the start of the show as the ticket showed special guest Greg Varlotta who I assumed was the support act. Fortunately my pal had seen Nils earlier in the year and was more tuned in to the fact that Varlotta was not the support but that he accompanied Lofgren through his set. Thankfully we finished our pints in a nearby bar and made it to our seats in time for the start at 8.00 PM prompt.
Two hours later as the pair thanked us and left the stage, I had joined everyone else who was on their feet to applaud a consummate, professional musician.
The set began with Lofgren on harp but it was not too long before he had switched to a Fender electric guitar with a trademark long scarf trailing from the headstock. Thereafter he switched between acoustic guitars taking us through a variety of songs that were a fair representation of his 47 year career. These included three songs from his early days with Grin who he informed us had supported Jimi Hendrix on Lofgren's 19th birthday. From then on, his career path has been fascinating and working with the likes of Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen must have been a fantastic musical education for him. And believe me, it shows.
The stage had rather minimal lighting and Lofgren was wearing a brimmed hat pulled down to his eyes so it was difficult to discern his expressions. This plus the signs warning against the practice made photography impossible I'm afraid - so no photos on this occasion.
The fine music which included personal favourites, 'Walkin' Nerve', 'Rusty Gun', 'Keith Don't Go', 'Believe' and of course 'No Mercy', was interspersed with some amusing chatter from Lofgren. An early joke told us of a teenage boy who announced to his mother that when he grew up he wanted to be a rock musician. Her reply was "Son, you can't do both". Another was a story of African drums but for me the most interesting anecdote of the evening was how he got the gig playing with Neil Young on the album 'After the Goldrush'. Young and David Briggs suggested that Lofgren should play piano and the fact that he wasn't a pianist didn't deter them. After all, Lofgren had played accordion since he was 5 years old.
While working on the song 'Southern Man', Lofgren remained during a lunch break with drummer Ralph Molina to practice his piano part. He introduced some of his old polka rhythms into the arrangement which Young and Briggs liked so much that they remained. Have a listen yourself. You may never hear the song in the same way again.
There is no doubt that the whole audience was delighted when during 'I Came To Dance', Varlotta left his keyboard and began a tap dancing routine, soon to be joined by Lofgren, tap dancing while playing his guitar. It was a great moment and I never thought that I would live to say that tap dancing was the highlight of a show. It just goes to show that life is full of surprises. I should at this juncture make special mention of Varlotta himself who provided wonderful accompaniment to Lofgren on keyboard, guitar and trumpet. Clearly he is a great musician in his own right.
After ending the main set with 'No Mercy', the pair returned to encore with Neil Young's 'Rockin' in the Free World'. It went out to the people who were killed or injured while going about their normal business at the Bataclan Theatre in Paris last Friday. It was a fitting anthem particularly as the song begins with the line "There's colors on the street, red, white and blue". I don't think there was anyone in the audience last night who was not yelling out that famous chorus. And I suspect that a few like me had a tear in their eye.
The night ended with the crowd pleaser, 'Shine Silently', then to rapturous applause the pair left the stage. Lofgren may have forgotten at one point that he was in Whitley Bay and referred to us as Scarborough. However he was soon put right on that score and after such a wonderful performance, how could we not forgive him for such a faux pas?
I have no idea why I have left it so long to see a Lofgren show but I'm delighted I have now seen one. And I'm so pleased that I never missed a second of it.
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