San Antonio (Municipal Auditorium) : 15 février 1968

San Antonio (Municipal Auditorium) : 15 février 1968



THE RAG - ‘Hendrix’ by Dough Smith :

“All the way to San Antonio to see Jimi Hendrix should have been a good trip, but was it?? Last Thursday night, the Jimi Hendrix Experience was presented in SA’s Municipal Auditorium. Expecting to see the electrifying, guitar-burning master of feedback, the audience witnessed what may have been an all-time low for any professional musician. After waiting (wading) through the usual preliminary round of local talent, The Swiss Movement and Neal Ford and The Fanatics, the anxious audience was presented with what may have been the only redeeming factor of the night. It was the Soft Machine, an English ‘under ground, experimental laboratory’ group on tour with Hendrix. The three-piece group (organ, guitar, drums) played three lengthy com positions which would, probably fall into the psychedelic-jazz-electric category. They seemed to defy all of the usual ‘in-person’ rock band traditions, instead of wearing the usual bright coloured costumes, for example, the drummer wore only a ‘small bikini-type swimsuit’ [sic (a bikini is a two piece including bra you twat!)]. Instead of using spotlights as most bands do, The Soft Machine played in an unlit portion of the stage with their light show (supposedly England’s best) capturing all visual attention. Their music generally seemed to be completely inharmonious and random, but with a little attention one could detect symphonic-like structure. The Soft Machine’s music was truly a sound of the future. And judging from most of the audience’s reaction, they are probably a few years ahead of their time. It will be interesting to hear their first album, which is to be released in about a month. Finally, it was Hendrix’s time, and it was certainly not too soon for all of those who had paid $5 a seat to see him do his thing with the guitar. When the curtain went up, the stage looked like one of the local music stores with speaker cabinets and amplifiers lining it from one end to the other. There were a total of eighteen 15” speakers powered by Sunn amps. Hendrix, wearing bright green [trousers], began with ‘Hey Joe’ and everything seemed to be off to a good start. He played a couple of other cuts off his last album in fine form (yes, he really does play with his teeth) and apologized to the audience for having to tune between every song. ‘We tune so much because we care about your ears.’ (Haven’t we all heard that one somewhere before?) And then, when everyone was getting fired up for much more, Hendrix stepped up to the mike and said, ‘Well, I guess the rest of the show won’t sound too good. You’re looking at eight blown amplifiers.’ How true! How true! The rest of the show, in fact, sounded like garbage and after about three more numbers Hendrix nodded to Noel Redding and they calmly put their instruments down and walked off stage. It was all over. Everyone had paid $5 to see the great Jimi Hendrix blow out his amplifiers, calmly say ‘Good night,’ and leave.”

San Antonio (Auditorium Municipal): 15 février 1968 JIMI HENDRIX:
. - Frank Gravis a écrit :
"J'étais au premier show d' Hendrix à l'Auditorium municipal (les parents ne m'aurait pas laisser me rendre au deuxième show) Je me souviens du groupe The Swiss Movement qui a ouvert la soirée, puis Neal Ford and the Fanatics, puis The Soft Machine, avec un spectacle de lumière vraiment grand. Puis Hendrix. Je me souviens de la vitesse de Jimi. Il avait deux têtes Sunn 1200S, avec quatre armoires Sunn connecté à chacun, chaque armoire avec deux 15 "haut-parleurs. Noel Redding avait presque la même configuration, mais il avait un Sunn et une tête Marshall; même nombre d'armoires que Jimi. Mitch Mitchell était unmiked. Je n'ai pas vu une lutte de batteur tellement d'être entendu à ce jour. L'AP a une tête Fender Showman double avec deux armoires Vox Beatle Super, un de chaque côté de la scène. Mike Jimi était à peine audible. En raison de la manière de Jimi vitesse a été câblé, en raison de l'impédance de charge extrêmement faible sur les amplificateurs, les deux ampères Sunn surchauffé et un a cédé, un ampli environ 40 minutes dans le spectacle, l'autre peu après. Jimi a jeté sa guitare et s'en alla de dégoût. Cependant, que 40 minutes a été la magie absolue. Je n'avais jamais entendu un tel son de guitare énorme; n'ont pas à ce jour. Je me souviens comme si c'était hier; tout cela venait de la scène, non-micros. Si seulement sa vitesse n'était pas mort ... Quoi qu'il en soit, j'ai entendu une grogne peu que je sortais de la salle, se plaindre qu'il y ait deux heures d'attente avant l'ouverture , et seulement 40 minutes de spectacle d' Hendrix. Je me suis dit, "Ouais, mais que 40 minutes a été changé ma vie." Et il était là. "

Super ces photos inédites et ce témoignage !

Merci Brume !