Tape: Steve Wynn Live at Knust on 2005-10-28

Steve Wynn (g)
Jason Victor (g)
Linda Pitmon (d)
Erik Van Loo (b)
* = Featuring Chris Cacavas (g)

Friday evening at the old slaughterhouse in Hamburg, now renamed Knust and a small rock-club. The audience of less than 200 waited patiently through the opening act Chris Cacavas for Steve Wynn and The Miracle 3 to take the stage. But at last the lights went down, 1-2-3-4 and “Death Valley Rain” was played as the first song. I was surprised to hear this as opener due the dark mood of the song. Then followed the first of 7 songs from the new album “…Tic…Tic…Tic”. After that a few well known songs before the first major surprise of the evening, a brilliant version of Dylan’s “Blind Willie McTell”. I heard Steve play this song when he toured with John Wesley Hardin back in 1998, but this version was far superior. By now Steve owned the audience and played 6 new songs in a row. The band surely loved to play the songs – and we loved to listen. Just as I thought it couldn’t get any better Steve played “Nothing But The Shell” with the famous reference to Neil Young. When he plays in Denmark we all shout these words, in Germany, I think I was the only one who did that… The set ended with the normal showstopper “Amphetamine” – more wild guitar and heavy drumming. The first encore let us into a premature Halloween feast, and then Chris Cacavas joined for the hymn “There Will Come A Day” which made me almost cry. Partly because it’s a beautiful song, partly I knew this was the last song of the evening. But we can all be mistaken as Steve hasn’t finished rocking. “The Days Of Wine And Roses” and as much stage show as you get with a 4 (or 5) piece rock band. Heavy interaction between bass and drums and the guitars. At one point Steve jumped into the audience quickly followed by guitarist Jason Victor and a mike, and played on for a few minutes in front of the stage while Linda Pitmon, Erik Van Loo and Chris Cacavas stayed on the stage and provided the rhythm section. And then it was over – or not quite, the band just couldn’t stop and came back for a 10 minutes “John Coltrane Stereo Blues”. After almost 2 hours the band finally left but only for a brief moment as they all came to the bar and talked to fans and friends. How they manage to sign records and listen to more or less intelligent remarks from the audience after such a show I can’t understand, but it only shows how much they appreciate the fans – and the appreciation is surely mutual!
If you get a chance, go and see Steve Wynn live. The tickets are normally cheap and you are guaranteed to get an evening full of rock’n’roll.