Washington (Hilton Hotel) : 10 mars 1968 [Premier concert]

Washington (Hilton Hotel) : 10 mars 1968 [Premier concert]

Show de l'après midi 15h00.
4000 spectateurs (Sold Out).
Première partie : Soft Machine

Titres :

1. Killing Floor
2. Foxy Lady
3. The Wind Cries Mary
4. Fire
5. Red House
6. I Don't Live Today
7. Purple Haze
8. Wild Thing



Source : "Hunter/Hilton" ATM 039

C'est un enregistrement amateur d'un peu plus d'une demi-heure présentant une qualité audio très médiocre. Si la guitare de Jimi passe à peu près, la balance est très déséquilibrée, avec un rendu pas toujours très musical. La voix de Jimi est très distante : on la devine plus qu'on ne l'entend la plupart du temps. Il y a quelques cuts, mais ceux-ci sont effectués afin de conserver le maximum de musique.

Jimi débute le concert en créant un mur de feedback, puis attaque l'introduction de "Killing Floor" telle qu'elle a été jouée à Monterey. La version du classique d'Howlin' Wolf n'est pas servie par la qualité de l'enregistrement dans la mesure où la guitare rythmique étouffe complètement le chant. Pour autant, il faut noter un solo central long et inspiré, bien construit, avec sur la fin un tiré assez extraordinaire de Jimi, qui a délaissé les amplificateurs Sunn pour sa marque préférée - Marshall.

Le solo de "Foxy Lady" est lui sans surprise : il reprend la trame de la version studio avant quelques développements.

"The Wind Cries Mary" est, à ce stade, le titre le plus musical du concert : le volume réduit nous laisse entendre le chant de ce qui est déjà l'avant-dernière version du troisième single de l'Experience. La qualité audio n'est toutefois pas suffisante pour vraiment juger de la qualité musicale. On peut le regretter dans la mesure où Jimi semble juste, et la version réussie.

Sur "Fire", si les couplets passent bien, il n'en va pas de même pour les refrains, où le chant et la batterie sont largement étouffés. Jimi propose des solos courts, compacts et efficaces.

Jimi présente alors un "blues de notre album anglais" : il s'agit bien sûr de "Red House". Si le tempo se ralentit un peu, la version reste encore assez courte, avec un solo central de seulement un cycle de 12 mesures. Techniquement correct, il semble lui manquer le petit plus qui fait habituellement la différence.

La qualité audio est trop insuffisante pour apprécier "I Don't Live Today", dont le solo central se rapproche de la version studio, alors que le final est très free... C'est d'ailleurs l'aspect le plus marquant de cette fin de concert : le taux de jeu free & bruitiste est nettement plus élevé que lors des concerts habituels de l'Experience.

"Purple Haze" commence ainsi par une introduction bruitiste de 2 minutes 30 à faire peur aux enfants. Le solo central est proche de la version studio, même s'il connait de courts développements.

De "Wild Thing", il ne reste guère que le final, furieusement bruitiste.

Au final ? Pas de problème de justesse majeur, une setlist intéressante et une performance qui semble de qualité... Une seconde source serait la bienvenue !

THE EVENING STAR - Hilton, 1st show review ‘Gyrating Hendrix Pleases Crowd’ by John Segraves:
“There has been a lucrative vacancy on the hip rock music scene for a black version of Elvis Presley for some time now…
…another psychedelic guitarist with all the eroticism to become another Elvis Presley. Off his showing yesterday, Jimi’s sudden rise to fame is bewildering. When he sang, the full volume of the 15 pieces of electronic amplifying equipment behind him submerged his voice into, at best, a small whisper. Thus no one can say they actually heard him sing…
…yesterday must have been one of what he likes to call his ‘mild moods,’ or else he got the word that Washington doesn’t dig his often gross maneuvers, especially on a Sunday in a swank hotel…
…[Jimi’s music] was far more interesting than the group which preceded the Experience.. .but this is faint praise indeed.
If Mr. Hendrix and his wild, almost frenzied form of rock want’s to move in on Elvis, the time seems ripe. I do hope if he comes by our town again he lowers the decibels a few hundred degrees so one can appraise his voice. His guitar emits so much blatant noise that it too becomes indistinguishable. But then Presley hasn’t become a millionaire several times because anyone ever called him a musician - or even a singer, for that matter. Perhaps the Experience should be called the Mystique or something.”

THE WASHINGTON POST - Hilton, 1st show review)
‘Jimi Hendrix Socks It to ‘Em’ by Jim Hoagland: “The question kept circulating yesterday, ‘Is he going to burn it?’ He didn’t, but he didn’t disappoint the crowd either, with his wildly sexual gyrations and to-hell-with- it attitude. He is bad, and teenagers love him for it. He is more evil than Elvis ever dreamed of being, and the teenagers know that it infuriates their parents. That he is black adds the final necessary anti-suburb anti-Establishment touch. It is entirely necessary, in fact, that Hendrix is a Negro, his music is Chuck Berry filtered through the Beatles and the West Coast electronic freak-out, back through a black man to a 99 per cent white audience. It is the ultimate development (perversion?) of the wide acceptance of the ‘race music’ of Berry, Joe Turner and Laverne Baker and others in the early ‘50s. Jimi Hendrix is the P.T. Barnum of rock. He assesses, and fills, the needs of his crowd. His blackness is an Uncle Tom blackness.
Hendrix is a fine guitarist (his first album is superb), but the crowd could have cared less. They responded wildly when Hendrix just walked out on the stage. They were experiencing themselves experiencing the event - autohype, it is called. They responded more to each other responding to Hendrix erotically stroking his guitar and grinding it against himself, than to the events themselves. They think Jimi Hendrix is where it’s at. If he is, I’m not sure that I want to go.”

WASHINGTON FREE PRESS - Hilton, 1st show :
“The Hilton Ballroom was overcrowded and the performance was late in starting, but these discomforts were smoothly ameliorated by the appearance on stage of WPGC’ s Warren Duffy in his orange, flowered pants. I hurried downstairs to my seat in the front row of the auditorium. The lights dimmed and the audience’s thunderous applause was met with thunderous waves of electronic sound. An hour and some seven songs later I had witnessed an electronically amplified man carry a crowd of nearly five thousand on a journey through his mind.”

HULLABALOO - ‘Live! The Jimi Hendrix Experience!’ [10 March, Hilton, 2nd show] by Mark Carbone:

“The lights dimmed, Warren ‘Cousin’ Duffy, the WPGC DJ, joked with the audience a minute and then introduced the Soft Machine... They were coolly received. Everybody wanted Jimi. The intermission was a study in tension.
Without warning the air was filled with a few quiet guitar notes from behind the curtain.. another quick run on the strings. People flooded the empty area in front of the stage and sat down on the floor. The cops shrugged their shoulders in defeat.
Cousin’ Duffy said, ‘We’ve kept you waiting long enough! Here’s... The crowd went absolutely crazy. The curtain rose slowly to reveal the evil guitar-burner, his hairy bass player, and his drummer (buried behind his own equipment). There was a solid wall of gray and black amplifiers. People standing on their seats or on the floor, were reacting to the sound of a group operated machine, but all of their attention was on the purple and green clad hero in the Australian bush hat.....His eyes were closed as he put his white guitar through its paces. Then, he …swaggered up to his microphone and sang: ‘It was 20 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play...’ Two breaks for feedback solos, another verse, and the end of the first song. There was no need for the audience to start applauding; they had been applauding for four minutes straight now. Immediately Jimi began an introduction which momentarily puzzled the crowd. It was beautiful but what was the song? Everybody hushed to listen. Slowly the arpeggio became ‘Hey Joe’ and the audience again began to react. In the solo be played with his teeth, slid to the floor, and swung the guitar neck into the microphone stand. The crowd roared its approval. After ‘Fire’ anticipating a lull, as the third song ‘The Wind Cries Mary’ began, the crowd decided to sit down and listen to the sounds of the Experience, but this calm was not to last. As Jimi began to tell us about ‘Foxy Lady’ one of the oddest things I’ve ever seen took place , what appeared to be a six-foot chicken ran toward Jimi, who was totally unaware of its (his?) presence. The head of the ‘chicken’ fell off, revealing a very angry face. The man, half- jumping out of his costume, tackled Jimi, but was quickly pulled away by a dozen cops - but not before felling a surprised guitarist and knocking over some drums. Jimi gathered himself and his screaming guitar together, gave the ‘chicken-man’ a few well-chosen gestures, picked up one of Mitch Mitchell’s cymbals, and resumed the song, laughing. (Just who or what the ‘chicken-man’ was, was never explained.) By now the crowd was standing stone silent. At the end of ‘Foxy Lady,’ Jimi mumbled something about the interruption and proceeded. Everyone was still a little shocked, but they soon sat down again.
More great music: climax, climax, climax. …In spite of the evening’s wildness, there was absolute silence during ‘Purple Haze’ and ‘Wild Thing…
…Will he burn it?...
No he didn’t burn it. But the evil guitar-burner didn’t let us down either. ‘The Wind Cries Mary’ and ‘Red House’ blues gave the eyes of the cult an added vision. Purple Haze was beautiful, making his recorded version a mere shadow of a song.
Everybody stood up as Jimi changed guitars. Jimi tuned his guitar and then began the distinctive overture ‘Wild Thing’. He and his guitar did a sexy dance to the tune of several bugle calls, all blending into ‘Wild Thing’ and yes, even the national anthem! A mike toppled over, and, ever so slowly, the evil guitar-burner
removed the guitar from his shoulder and rammed it into his Marshall amp. Everything fell over, flew through the air, and howled with feedback! Jimi stopped. Dead. He picked up his mike, thanked us for coming, and bid us goodnight.’…
He didn’t have to burn it. If he were a superficial performer with no style or poetry to show us, the burning ceremony would have been necessary: a shock at the end of the show to leave a scar. But Jimi Hendrix has style and poetry; his fire is that most important fire: the fire within.”
(Page?) [title?] by [unknown]: “Following their appearance at Monterey, the group made their second appearance in this country in New York. The city‘s first exposure to that ‘live act’ was at the Central Park Music Festival [5 July ‘67]. The Rascals were set to headline the bill, but word got out that Hendrix would do a set on the first show. As darkness set in on the park, an audience filled with groups such as the Doors and most of New York’s hip musical crowd had assembled. Jimi stepped out on stage and smiled at the audience. He began to tune with the comment “We tune because we care,” uttered in his soft hushed voice. Then he broke into Purple Haze and followed with all of his great numbers, including ‘Hey Joe’, ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ and “The British and American National Anthems” (‘Wild Thing’). The crowd was stunned but appreciative. During the following weeks I saw Jimi appear again at the Scene where the musicians dug him and at the opening night at Salvation where the pretty people ignored his act and talked of never having heard of him. Then I went out to Long island to see him on the Monkees Travelling show.
At the concert [14 July ‘67, Forest Hills, NY], Hendrix sauntered out and went into his regular set. The audience didn't care. They were there for the Monkees and had never heard of Jimi. Suddenly Jimi took his guitar, threw it down and stomped off stage.

Un "Red House" très sauvage et magnifique.