(From an e mail that went to my band at the time, Southbound)
I went to see Pat Travers at 19 Broadway in Fairfax.. a place half the size of the Viking in Novato. Lou’s band opened and Crazy Larry was there.. he asked about the Pignose (just kidding.. but he was there..and amazingly still alive..). Ran into Mike Varney as well. Apparently Varney’s label has put out the last 12 Travers CD’s.. apparently not as big sellers as the old days. Pat uses different back up bands depending on where he is playing. These guys were from San Jose and have a band called ‘Wondereyes’.. or something like that. They book the gigs and fly Pat out here and do shows. These guys were lame and any one of us could’ve backed Pat as well. but they had pro gear and they knew Pat’s tunes.. but they had 2 rhythm players..who basically stepped all over Pat’s tone most of the night. I was in front.. literally 2 feet from Pat.. he comes out first as just a trio and jumps into a version of Highway 61 revisited that if you closed your eyes you’d swear it was Johnny Winter in 1977.. with an old 60’s Les Paul tuned to open ‘G’. and playing slide like there’s no tomorrow… then he jumps into Voodoo Chile..”No Way”.. I’m thinkin…. He then puts on an even older double cutaway Les Paul with a old factory tremolo bar , and the rest of the lamos join in, and proceeds to play every f-cking Pat Travers favorite you can imagine..
Hooked on Music, Life in London, on down the line.. and I’m realizing… “Hey.. this guy stole all my licks!!!…’. I can see now where I learned how to play.. even my unorthodox patterns of playing scales were right there in front of me.. laid out faster and better of course.. but he played the same patterns as me.. (or I as him.. as it were..). Anyway.. he plays for an hour and change and ends with this version of Grand Funk tune that kicks ass (apparently the new CD is covers,.which I will procure).
So I go outside to get some air and there’s some kid out there talking about how he hadn’t seen such a rock show like that since he saw ‘Crossroads’ at Pete’s 881 about 6 months ago..I ask him Crossroads?? He says.. ” Yeah.. there was this crazy guy with a Marshall and a tremolo bar and this other guy with a Strat and they were just balls out..” I tried to convince him that the Band was Southbound and I was in it.. He was kind of buyin the fact that it was me but wasn’t sure the band wasn’t called ‘Crossroads’??. Maybe we should change our name….