A living legend graced the outdoor stage last Friday night at the Seneca Allegany Casino to close out the summer in fine fashion. Jeff Beck and his band played an extended set due to ZZ Top dropping off of the bill just 2 days earlier. The 3,500 plus crowd enjoyed watching one of the best guitarists on the planet run through a 20 song set that featured various styles and forms of music with some extraordinary covers thrown in.
Jeff’s band consists of Rhonda Smith on bass, Jonathan Joseph on drums, Nicholas Meier on rhythm guitar and Jimmy Hall on vocals. Beck took the stage and ripped right into a new song “Loaded” that will be on an upcoming album, soon to be released. A few other new tracks made it into the set also called “Nine” and a mid eastern song written by Meier called “Yemin.” Beck, who just celebrated his 70th birthday, enjoyed performing various songs that tapped into jazz, blues, hard rock, jazz fusion, country and anything else he can delve into and make his own.
Hall took the mic on a number of tracks including the Sam Cooke cover “A Change is Gonna Come.” His raspy and soulful voice helped Beck push the song to new limits. Another highlight was the The Beatles cover “A Day in the Life.” The instrumental was maneuvered perfectly as Beck demonstrated his out of this world guitar playing. Hall did a commendable job on the Hendrix classic “Little Wing” as well.
Beck’s band had enjoyed some of the spotlight too as Smith and Joseph took center stage for a bit of “Nine.” Beck also dove into his short lived Beck, Bogert and Appice project when the band played the Stevie Wonder classic “Superstition.” The song mirrored the same style the 1973 album offered. The band was met with two encores as they closed the performance with opener Tyler Bryant as they covered the Troggs “Wild Thing.” They also did a bluegrass country version of “Rollin and Tumblin.”
What can you say that hasn’t been said before about Jeff Beck? The man is still creating masterful songs and riffs evident by the new songs he incorporated into Fridays’ set. He is by far one of the most gifted guitarist on the planet and did all of his paying with a bandaged left hand. This didn’t stop or hinder his performance at all. You can sum it all up in one word. At 70 years young Becks playing is simply “breathtaking!”
Setlist:
Loaded
Nine
You Know You Know (Mahavishnu Orchestra cover)
Hammerhead
Morning Dew (Bonnie Dobson cover)
Why Give It Away
A Change Is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke cover)
Yemin (Nicolas Meier cover)
Stratus (Billy Cobham cover)
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat / Brush with the Blues
You Never Know
Little Wing (The Jimi Hendrix Experience cover)
Superstition (Stevie Wonder cover)
Big Block
A Day in the Life (The Beatles cover)
Encore 1:
Rollin’ and Tumblin’ (Hambone Willie Newbern cover)
Goin’ Down (Moloch cover)
Encore 2:
Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers (Syreeta cover)
Wild Thing (The Wild Ones cover)
We would like to thanks Tony Astran and Leslie Logan from the Seneca Allegany Casino for the credentials to review the show.
