Bands & Concerts - JZ Murdock

Just for fun and not necessarily in order of exact chronology some Pacific Northwest music history. These are some (most?) of the bands and concerts JZ Murdock has attended since he was a child. Beginning with The Beatles. A pretty good concert to start with, right? He always thought that he hadn’t seen that many concerts in his life time like some of his friends. So he made a list one day to see and was surprised with what he came up with.

Some band experiences may have been lost to the ravages of time and any inebriates back during the time of the event’ climate of the times and all. Though memories do tend to surface from time to time and will get added to this page.

As best as was possible, venues, dates, set lists and experiences are shared as could be discovered and verified through research or personal memories. Murdock has also been saving concert and theatre tickets for years. So some of this has be verified and some had to be approximated or verified through the internet.

Sort of His First Concerts….
1960s
Cindy and the Barons (see photo directly above) – Local 60s Tacoma, Washington band from Murdock’s hometown that was his older brother’s and sister’s band in the late 1960s. Leader/Band President\vocals\lead guitar, Jon Forseth (guitarist above in back) by drummer; keyboards\vocals, Cindy Sanford; drummer, Steve Johnson; Rhythm guitar, Ron Ohm (seated guitarist); lead singer, Tom Owens. The singer shown in band photo above is now unknown as is when he was in the band, and the same for the guitarist, far left. Murdock only remembers Tom as the band’s singer.
From Jon:
“The Barons played around Tacoma in 1966-1967 or so. At first they were called “The Egyptians” and perhaps some other before they settled on “The Barons”. We added sister Cindy to the line up to play organ and called ourselves, “Cindy and the Barons“. We participated in a battle of the bands one year at Fort Lewis and the stage was nearly overrun when Steve said, “We will need a little help with this song!” That being “Oo poo pah doo“. But before he got that far they were climbing up on the stage trying to get at our sister. It freaked her out as I remember. She was perhaps 14 or 15 years old at the time. We did have our own night club down in Lacey for a tiny while, and we played the Evergreen Ballroom one time, second to “Paul Revere and the Raiders” (who hosted a Dick Clark TV show for a while).”
The band is listed as “Cindi and the Barons” on the Pacific Northwest Bands web site on their page for the Evergreen Ballroom.
It was discovered another long standing band was named “The Barons“ and yet another newer band was using the same name, they added band leader Jon’s (and Murdock’s sister Cindy on keyboards, changing the name because they found there were already two other bands with their name. There was a utility room in the home used as storage for the band’s amps and PA system and equipment. Someone put a sign on the door off the kitchen that said, “The Baron Room“. And so it was called from that day on. Even years after the band broke up , the 1960s were over on through the 70s until the room was turned into a second bathroom. Shown is possibly the original lead singer unknown to Murdock at this time. and his brother doesn’t remember the singer’s name either now. The one he does remember was Tom Owens, seen in the insert on the right from the only photo he has of him. The Barons eventually broke up do to infighting. even though they had gotten a positive response from a record label who said they had a good sound that was their own, and to keep to keep working on it, Oh, and speaking of the singer….
Murdock remembers Tom Owens (from his 12 year old’s perspective) as a very easy going guy, always in the company of attractive women fawning over him. In fact there seemed to be a lot of female hangers on around the house mostly during band practice nights. He once asked Tom how he did so well with women and Tom said that it was easy, he just always treated every woman as a queen, no matter what. There was more but it’s not exactly politically correct anymore (not that it was so much even back then). Tom sold Murdock his first record album, Britisher Ian Whitcomb’s You Turn Me On (which included the hit This Sporting Life). The song other than those he remembers from that album is the humorous, Too Many Cars On The Road. Here’s a current video of the singer. He exchange for a high school class ring Murdock had found as a kid on the street. Which caused some contention between the band’s President, Murdock’s older brother, but it blew over and everyone learned a lesson from it. Well, Murdock did. Just for fun a more current video of Whitcomb.
Mostly Murdock never saw them play anywhere but at band practice at their home which was held on Thursday nights starting at 7:30PM. People have since said that they actually looked forward to it, those who lived in the neighborhood. Murdock would walk outside of the house during practice at times and see families here and there up and down the street on Tacoma’s Park Avenue near 50th Street South, sitting out out on their front porch or steps listening and talking in the summer evenings.
One concert he did get to attend, was at Western State Mental Hospital. The band arrived as usual using his mother’s Mercury station wagon. She hauled the band all over the place for concerts. They arrived during the day and were given a warm welcome. They were allowed to swim in the outside therapeutic pool which was quite hot but an interesting experience. Then they got to eat in the chow hall. During the evening concert, the band played on a stage and patients “danced” on the dance floor area, while the family remained up above in the back in a balcony. As the concert ended, one thing young patient stopped and looked up, staring into the 12 year old’s eyes. He was clasping his hands against his chest in an odd demeanor until an attendant came and gently took him away out beneath the balcony.
It was an odd and disturbing experience for the young Murdock. In asking the administrator about it as they were leaving, he said not to worry, the young man was harmless, very religiously devout and always very quiet. Years later Murdock would attend and received his first college Associate of Arts degree from Ft. Steilacoom Community College (now Pierce College) across the street from the Hospital and would daily drive by and remember that concert, and that young man. Several times during that commute traffic would be backed up because of an escaped patient walking down the center of the street in a white hospital gown. As he rode a motorcycle that first year, he had one day to ride right past a woman patient as attendants from the hospital came to safely collect her.
Regarding Western State Hospital. Back in the 1940s Murdock’s young mother was one of those attendants. She had taken care of one notable patient, the noted actress, Francis Farmer. Also his sister’s husband through all these years, his brother in law’s brother was once head of pharmacology at the hospital. Having keys she one day thought it would be exciting to enter “triple lock down”. She went through a locked door into the inner sections of the more “challenging” (dangerous) patients, through three locked doors. Two male patients approached her in an empty hallway. Just as it was getting scary a male attendant appeared and quickly ushered her out of there and chastised her for ever being in there and alone. She never did it again.
The band won a Battle of the Bands – They played at Ft. Lewis Army base (now joint Army\Air Force base Lewis\McChord) and seemed to be very popular with all the GIs as they were the only band with an attractive girl in it, or any girl at all for that matter.
The Barons leased an old church in Lacy, WA for a while and the young Murdock sold snacks for the local kids attending the concerts out of a Dutch door closet in the back that opened into the main hall. There was a stage the band played on opposing the closet. He would stand in there and watch a small portable B/W TV set. In recent years someone from back then has said on Facebook that they were there back then and attended those dances. They said it was miserable living in Lacey and the band was an amazing change to their lives on the weekends. It also had the opposite effect when they had to stop doing it in a kind of Footloose (the film) style rebuke by the towns leaders.

FIRST real concert….
The Beatles– Murdock’s first concert. He went with his older sister by three years. The concert was held at the Seattle Center Coliseum (later Key Arena, now Climate Pledge Arena), in Seattle, on August 25, 1966. Sadly, though he had kept the ticket to this concert for decades, one day in looking at it in his scrapbook he realized that he had been given back the wrong part of the ticket stub at the concert and it actually had no relevant information on it whatsoever to indicate it was that Beatles concert, not even the date. Making what could have been a valuable ticket, valueless, and he tossed it in dismay.

Playset for the concert:

Rock and Roll Music (Chuck Berry cover)
She’s a Woman
If I Needed Someone
Day Tripper
Baby’s in Black
I Feel Fine
Yesterday
I Wanna Be Your Man
Nowhere Man
Paperback Writer
I’m Down

1970s
Three Dog Night – 8/26/1972 (4 days before my birthday) – Seattle, WA, Coliseum (originally scheduled for Sicks Stadium). Again at the Seattle Center Coliseum with my sister and her fiancée Joe (later husband and still to this day) and my girlfriend Julie at the time (who was in eleventh grade and went to my female cousin’s (her best friend’s) high school) when I was in 12th grade. It was a great concert and after we had pizza in Seattle with my sister and her boyfriend. My girlfriend and my trip home was remarkable and memorable and I can still see things from that night like it was yesterday.
There were also, the Wackers, Crackers, John Kay (from Steppenwolf), El Chicano, and the Doobie Brothers at the Seattle Center Coliseum. Very cool concert but I cannot now find anything on the Crackers, though a friend said they were a local 80s band and added that El Chicano were there too. I really have no idea). I can’t find a thing online about this concert. I just remember, other than the names, John Kay looking cool on stage alone (I think) with his dark sun glasses on. I remember later on the Doobie Brothers (who we thought were cool referring to a “doobie” (joint) and all that) came out with a great song, “Jesus is Just all right”. But then later true or not, we thought they seemed to turn too Christian and everyone I knew stopped listening to them. To be fair about the “doobie” issue: “A friend of the band and fellow musician, Keith Rosen, is the one who suggested the name The Doobie Brothers, as the word “doobie” is a nickname for a marijuana joint that the bandmates often indulged in.” – American Songwriter
Let’s just say it was a comedy of errors.
So overall, very memorable concert all things considered.
I had to get permission to take my girlfriend at the time, but as my older sister and her husband were going with, we got it.
After the concert we went to a nearby pizza joint (had to call for the girlfriend’s parent’s permission and got it).
But there were other interesting issues later that night, like driving along Alaska Way in leaving Seattle around midnight on the waterfront while a cop followed us on my left and my girlfriend hid in the footwell of the front passenger seat, it all making me very nervous and for very good and at the time some seemingly amazing (if not life changing) reasons. We then got lost on a not yet completed freeway that eventually led to SeaTac airport. We got lost in a neighborhood, expecting a freeway and ended up temporarily in an empty church parking, lot half way back to Tacoma. Except for a minister suddenly pulling up (seriously, what are the odds of that?) who arrived with his wife, probably getting home after some function, and walking toward my car to see what’s up (full well probably knowing and probably having had to deal with the issue before with other young lovers) as I quickly started the car and drove away.
Then, there was the next day. My girlfriend called and said her parents wanted to meet with me. Now. Today. So I drove to south Tacoma and met with my girlfriend’s parents grilling me about the night before. A situation I handled somehow unbelievable deftly and that I’ll never forget, standing in front of their living room fireplace, with each parent on either side of the room in large overstuffed chairs acting like attorneys… at a murder trial. But, I won them over. They apparently had good reason for their actions.

Then there were various concerts with classical orchestras. One being Spokane Symphony (see below).

Jethro Tull (at Washington State University‘s Beasley Coliseum in Pullman, WA) 5/3/1977 – with first wife. Good friend and fellow USAF Survival Equipment Shop Airman Dan Maggio gave us “nose bleed” tickets as far up and away from the stage in the venue as was possible to the point that front man and lead singer and flutist Ian Anderson looked like a toy; but they were free because Dan couldn’t go. We stayed in my wife’s cousins place, who was a masters student teaching there at “Wazzu” as it’s known locally, while he was gone for that weekend. Though not the greatest seats, it was something to do and we did get to see one of my favorite bands. What he had always considered one of the saving graces of the 1970s in the vast wasteland of disco music. Living in conservative Spokane Washington in the last half of the 70s, I didn’t learn about punk music until I started working at Tower (Posters, then Records on 38th St.) in Tacoma, Washington in 1980.

PlaySet for the concert:

Quartet
Wondr’ing Aloud
Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of A New Day
Jack-In-The-Green
Thick As A Brick
Songs From The Wood
Instrumental / Drum Solo
To Cry You A Song
A New Day Yesterday
Flute Solo / God Rest Ye / Pan Dance
Living In The Past
Velvet Green
Hunting Girl
Too Old To Rock’N’Roll: Too Young To Die
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony excerpt
Minstrel In The Gallery
Cross-Eyed Mary
Aqualung
Guitar Solo
Wind-Up
Back Door Angels
Locomotive Breath
Instrumental Finale
Back Door Angels reprise

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Black Sabbath & Van Halen – The tale of the Spokane Black Sabbath concert (at the Spokane Coliseum) with Van Halen (opening for them), September 28th, 1978 (Thursday) – Attendees sat on the floor in festival seating. Murdock went with his wife at the time and his two best friends from the Air Base where they worked. After they all ate some poorly mixed “brownies” before the concert, once they got to the venue, his friends made him take a hit off a pipe which he really didn’t want or feel like he needed and he couldn’t have been more correct. It put him over the edge.
Eddie Van Halen jumped forward on the stage, hit a chord, Murdock’s eyes rolled up in my head. He later said it looked to him like the ceiling came down and hit him in the face. His two friends caught him as he fell, before he hit the floor and with his wife, they took him to right of the stage, a hallway where security panicked told him to go to the other side of the venue as that was the side with the police on it.
Right then a cop walked up questioning things. Murdock, playing it brave, said he was fine, just needed a drink of water from a nearby fountain and went for it. The cop yelled at his friends to not let him get a drink. They caught him just as he passed out again. When he woke he was on a gurney. The thought crossed his mind to punch the cop and run… as he passed out again.
When he woke again he was in an ambulance.
It turned out that the pot brownies – an eighth ounce of Mexican dirt weed, didn’t get mixed well by his my wife and Murdock ended up eating just about all of it. He was literally chewing pot while the other three were saying, “yum good brownies” and he was saying, “yeah, I’m not getting that out of this” but no one caught what had happened.
As soon as one of the paramedics saw that Murdock had a secret clearance for nuclear weapons in his wallet from Fairchild AFB about 15 miles outside of Spokane, past the Spokane International Airport, he wanted him out of “his ambulance” as he told his newer partner and the cop, otherwise “they’d be doing paperwork all night.” Apparently he’d had this experience before with other Airman from the base with a nuclear security clearance. On a side note, if you are a veteran and have substance abuse issues… This guide offers an in-depth look at overcoming substance misuse for veterans (they solicited me to put this link here and in the vein of helping Vets, I agreed).
Murdock begged for a few minutes to reclaim himself, got it and finally existed the ambulance. He got out after a few minutes while talking to the cop, threw up green and brown stuff in the nearby gutter. To which the cop said, “I’d get him to a hospital.” But once his wife drove up in their 75 Camaro RS, he asked to just go home. They missed the rest of the concert. But once at home he had by then mellowed out and they hung out on their king sized waterbed all night having great sex instead.
In the meantime, his friends had trouble getting back in to the concert once they left him to head home. But finally after banging on the back door and explaining they did get in. They later said that Van Halen blew Black Sabbath off the stage. Word was later on that Black Sabbath was pretty burned out on that tour about by that point in the tour. As well they were tiring of Ozzie Osborne’s drug addictions and antics.

Black Sabbath playset for the concert:

Symptom of the Universe
War Pigs
Never Say Die
Dirty Women
Rock & Roll Doctor
Guitar Solo
Electric Funeral
Embryo / Children of the Grave
Paranoid
Snowblind
Black Sabbath
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (instrumental)
Iron Man
Fairies Wear Boots
Hand of Doom
N.I.B.
Gypsy
Shock Wave (only on a few dates)
Swinging the Chain (only on one or two dates at most, I believe)

Van Halen’s typical playset for the concert series:

“On Fire”
“I’m the One”
“Michael Anthony Bass Solo”
“Runnin’ with the Devil”
“Atomic Punk”
“Alex Van Halen Drum Solo”
“Jamie’s Cryin’”
“Little Dreamer”
“Feel Your Love Tonight”
“Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”
“Ice Cream Man” (“John Brim” Cover)
“Eddie Van Halen Guitar Solo” [+ “Eruption”]
“You Really Got Me” (“The Kinks” Cover)
[Encore]
“Dead or Alive”
“Bottoms Up!”

Donovan (Paramount Theater, Seattle) – ALate 1970s. Again with his first wife. Donovan sat along on a giant pillow center stage. At one point after a few songs Donovan broke his first string on his guitar and was obviously not happy with his roadie as there was no other first string available. It was a Sunday night, so there were no open music stores. Donovan tried an offered second string and talked to the audience about things from his past. Like being arrested in his London flat along with his friends by the not very pleasant police. It was an interesting story told in a humorous and very entertaining fashion. Once restrung, he continued with a couple of songs when….
The second string broke. He was exasperated by this point. He was given another 2nd string which he restrung it lasted all through the rest of the concert (actually it didn’t but it made little difference and no one really noticed). It was a great concert and after Murdock having missed seeing Donovan many years ago when his sister and brother saw him in the late 60s, he was happy he finally got to see him in the 70s.

Spokane Symphony at the Spokane Performing Arts Center, In the late 70s. Murdock’s and his wife’s landlord couldn’t go one night to use their season ticket and so Murdock and wife got to attend for one night and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Arlo Guthrie (twice at the Spokane Opera House, succeeding years). Again with his first wife they saw him one year and it was awesome. So they went back the next year. However this time it was curiously filled with high school kids who were talking and basically pissing Arlo off. It could only be surmised that the kids had heard how the previous year it was reported to have been so good that it was a real happening thing, not to be missed. But he wasn’t what they had expected as he did a lot of gospel type music, having changed his orientation years ago from the drug\counter culture. So these kids scattered throughout the venue were talking and basically rude. Still, it was a good concert.

1980s
Motorhead (Sunday, July 12, 1981) – again, Paramount Theater, Seattle – Lemmy will be missed. The very attractive red head co-employee from Tacoma Tower Posters, one night grabbed Murdock from work and talked him into dropping his register shift at work and running off to Seattle with her to see a band at the Paramount. All the guys he worked with had wanted to go out with this girl, while some of the other girls couldn’t stand her (jealously was assumed). She liked to put on a bikini and lay on a towel on her car hood in the parking lot on nice days and get some sun. The guys enjoyed it, but it just annoyed some of the girls. Another employee (a guy happy to help this happen) agreed to take his shift as it was a quiet night and… off they went.
When they got there, he found she didn’t have tickets as he assumed she had. Then she wanted him to pay for scalped tickets on the street, which he didn’t know whether or not they would be real or forged. The seller swore they were real and in the end, they were. But they weren’t cheap. This during a time when he didn’t have much money anyway and it took most of his cash.
They got in, saw an entire venue full of a leather and headbangers, long hair flipping in the air in a rhythmic beat, and having arrived late perhaps, they found it just wasn’t for them. So they left. Too bad really.
That night Murdock’s beater old Impala ran out of gas just after dropping the girl off at her home. No, she wasn’t going to invite him in, much to his disappointment, but they’d actually had a fun time. He walked back up the street a few blocks and knocked on her door, knowing she wouldn’t believe him as she knew quite clearly every guy at work had a “romantic” interest in her. He finally convinced her he wasn’t lying and talked her into letting him stay. She made it clear he was to stay in her father’s bedroom (away in Alaska on business).
Nothing happened that night, obviously. But later that year, while he was working next door at Tower Records, she again came back and again tried to talk him into taking the night off. This time she made it clear she WAS now interested in him and that spending the night with her was a sure thing. But, he was now back and living with his girlfriend who had returned from a year away at college (at “Wazzu” WSU).
So he turned her down, repeatedly. Disappointed , sh sat in her car staring at him for about half an hour, having said she wouldn’t give up till he came out. That was the last time they ever saw one another.

ZZ Top with Loverboy El Loco-Motion tour (Friday, July 24, 1981) opening, again at the Seattle Center Coliseum with his most excellent girlfriend (after his divorce) who he went through college with. Years later Loverboy said they learned a lot traveling with those guys. Murdock was reticent about seeing a concert with a pop band like Loverboy opening, but ZZ was quite a draw for him so they went. What he discovered was Loverboy had picked up a few things from ZZ and toughened their act up a bit so they weren’t as pop as he’d expected. ZZ of course, was awesome.
Setlist from Spokane, 2 nights later (from Setlist.fm):

Groovy Little Hippie Pad
Waitin’ for the Bus
Jesus Just Left Chicago
I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide
Don’t Tease Me
I Wanna Drive You Home
Ten Foot Pole
Manic Mechanic
Heard It on the X
A Fool for Your Stockings
Pearl Necklace
Cheap Sunglasses
Arrested for Driving While Blind
Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers
Party on the Patio
Tube Snake Boogie
Jailhouse Rock (Elvis Presley cover)
La Grange (with Sloppy Drunk Jam)
Tush

Grateful Dead (at the Seattle Center Coliseum) 8/29/1982 (actual music bootleg of this concert) again with his girlfriend. Before the concert they sat in the car, and it’s been alleged they each had a shot of rum , snorted some coke, dropped some acid, and smoked some weed. It’s in the great vein of Grateful Dead concert attendance, right?
At one point during the concert, Murdock realized something amazing was happening as the band was playing a song and each musician kind of went off on their own track, doing completely different things musically, but it all somehow fit together. He looked around to remark about it, to see if anyone else around him was hearing what he was hearing and noticed that everyone around him was… asleep! Including his girlfriend. He nudged her and she woke up. He tried to communicate what he was experiencing and had to yell in her ear to ask if she could hear what he was. But she had to have been following it all along and so didn’t understand.
It was utterly mind expanding, a completely amazing experience. Being stage right immediately above the ground level, up above there was a hung bank of speakers facing them just off and above the stage and… it was loud. Below some women were dancing, spinning circles in loose long, tie dyed sun dresses. It was a magical moment and finally… he got what it was about the Grateful Dead that was so amazing. These were talented musicians, to be sure. The drugs had something to do with the experience, but the band was definitely doing what it was doing to have evoked that experience.

PlaySet for the concert:
Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle, WA (8/14/81)

New Minglewood Blues
Sugaree
On the Road Again
Peggy-O
Beat it on Down the Line
Brown Eyed Women
Little Red Rooster
Don’t Ease Me In
Looks Like Rain
Bertha
Promised Land
Might As Well
Samson and Delilah
Ship of Fools
Playin’ in the Band
China Cat Sunflower
I Know You Rider
drums
Playin’ in the Band
Wharf Rat
Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad
I Need a Miracle
Johnny B. Goode
Baby Blue

Bryan Ferry (of Roxy Music fame) Fifth Avenue Theatre, Seattle Tueday, Sept. 6, 1988 (setlist) – A great show. Murdock ran into many people from Tower Tacoma stores, old friends. Went with his girlfriend and soon to be 2nd wife, and his eventual oldest son’s mother.

1990s
Crazy 8s at the Backstage in Ballard – Date is unknown, but around 1990? Attended with Murdock’s 2nd wife and enjoyed the small venue format and the band.

Howard Roberts Tribute at Seattle’s Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley – November 2, 1992. With good friend (who invited him) John Bone, they were on the short list that the Roberts family had. John’s female friend was married to Howard’s son. Steve Miller Band was there as well as others. Howard was the famous guitar work for so many studio songs including many TV theme songs like the iconic guitar on the original Twilight Zone TV show.
From program in order… John Hessburg (MC). Wecloming words by Jazz Alley Manager Rob Perry & Patty Roberts. Retrospective of the Humor & Heart of Howard Roberts by John Hessburg. Sound bites of HR’s classic TV themes from the 60s & 70s. Slide show, highlights of Howard’s life and times. Guitarists Don Mock & Jamie Findlay. The Big Now Band: Jay Roberts (guitar), Jim Coile (sax), Steve Bige (keyboards), Dan Dean (bass), Mark Ivester (drums. Steve Miller Blues set: Steve Miller (guitar\Vocals), Curtis Salgado (blues harmonica & vocals), Jay-Bird Koder (guitar), Mike Buono (drums), and members of The Stilettos from Portland. Clint Strong & The Campfire Boys: Clint Strong (guitar), Barney McClure (piano), Chuck Deardorf (bass), Tom Coilier (vibes), Mike Buono (drums), Tom Artwick (sax). Guitar tribute (Hymn for HR): Rich Dangel & Jay Roberts (guitar), Mark Ivester (drums), Rick Houle (bass).

2000s
Joshua Bell, violinist (Benaroya Hall, Seattle). Murdock took his two kids so that they could see what a real orchestra sounded like as they were in band in school since grade school. They started off across the street at the very fine Wild Ginger restaurant, upstairs from the Triple Door which uses the Wild Ginger’s kitchens for their food selections.
Both of Murdock’s kids are now talented musicians and artists but his daughter is the one pursuing those. His son having played clarinet taught himself guitar and keyboards and he produced a music CD before graduating high school. His daughter has traveled Europe twice performing and paying her way through her music. She also was featured along with her boyfriends at the time (second Europe trip) on a Paris radio station.

Jerry Miller (from Moby Grape) and The All Stars 8/7/2004 – Murdock’s intro to Triple Door in Seattle by his Ukrainian friend from their local Aikido dojo along with his friend’s first wife and some of their friends. His friend was setting him up with a friend of his wife’s (both very attractive), but she wasn’t having any of it, mostly because he isn’t Russian. This began a long love affair with that venue, one of his favorite in Seattle. Jerry was voted one of the top 100 guitarists of all time.

Adrian Belew(again at Triple Door, Seattle) 11/14/2006 – Murdock took his son for his birthday. The waitresses were fawning over him, one finally saying she had to confess that her and the other waitresses were all arguing with one another over who got to wait on our table because they thought he was the best looking guy in the place. He was quite humble and embarrassed by it all but both had an incredible time.

Gogol Bordello(at the Moore Sodo, Seattle) Murdock took both of his kids. Having taken them to a classical concert, all dressed up, he wanted them to safely experience their first real and raucous concert. His son was having one of his first pneumothorax experiences and so he had to sit through it, off to the side and out of the way and so Murdock sat with him through the entire concert while his daughter went and got up front of the crowd and had an incredible time. This was the loudest base they had ever heard in a concert. SO much energy from this amazing band that it was awesome. Apparently some guy had grabbed his daughter up front, but a very big security guy punched the guy right in the face until he let go and the rest of the night went without incident.

BB King(Music at the Piers, Seattle) with, Dr. John who Murdock has been a fan of since high school – On the piers at the waterfront in Seattle. Murdock sat in the front row next to an African American and entourage who seemed to know the BB from their distant interactions from the stage. He had rich clothes and lots of expensive rings with several women. Murdock sat next to them as if part of their group. It was by all tellings, a great seat and event. Sidenote, interested in playing like BB King, or others?

Buena Vista Social Club(Music at the Piers, Seattle) 6/6/2001 – This event included the band’s famous 100 year old piano player who played a song or two then left, but kept coming back not wanting to leave the stage. They’d walk him back off, and he’d come back, seeming to have a great time. Then the younger piano player who was leading him off, took over the piano and was totally amazing.

Chris Isaak (Music at the Piers Seattle) – Two years in a row. First time Murdock took his (last) wife, the second time he took her and her parents and they very much enjoyed it.

Carrie Clark(2006, without her Lonesome Lovers band, just a couple of others, man and woman) at Tizley’s Europub in Poulsbo, Washington with Murdock’s daughter who in years later also played there. Murdock got Carrie to sign something. What a smile and talent that woman has.

2010s
Buddy Guy’s Legends Blues Club in Chicago (2011, when sadly Buddy wasn’t playing that night but he did get on stage for a while and talk). I was there in Chicago sent by our company with some others on my IT team for a week of training. One night we all went out somewhere. A couple of guys went to a baseball game. Some saw a movie. One guy said he was going to Legends and I jumped on it. We had a great time. Splitting up once we got there. I sat on the right side of the stage at the side bar. A larger than life guy came up sat on a stool next to me. He was black and had that air of being a well off musician, casually but well dressed with enough jewelry to seem clear he had more money than I did, certainly. And sure enough he was apparently a friend of Buddy’s and also knew the guys playing on stage. He had a few very attractive women with him who all hung around him and so, me too. This was similar to my experience at the BB King concert where I inadvertently sat next to a similar type of musician also with a small band of women with him in the front row seats at a Seattle Music on the Pier concert. All that is, is that you have to scope out opportunities and seize the day. That has gotten me to the inner circle more than once and led to my meeting some very interesting people, and at times having a very entertaining night.
My older brother (who was had a band in the 60s with our sister, see above), just told me a story a few days ago, after riding our motorcycles (my Harley, his Triumph) over to the Manchester Pub nearby here in Washington state. He said that back in the late 1960s he went to the Whiskey A Go Go on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. The place was packed so the bouncer told him he could sit on a ladder next to the stage, also next to the end of the bar. So he got to sit merely feet away from John Mayall blues guitarist and band. If he needed a beer refill he just had to hold his empty glass down and the bartender would replace his drink.
There’s more to this story, but you get the idea.
Breaking the Spell (August 2014 in Bellingham) – The Living Arrows, formerly known as Breaking the Spell is Alexandra Doumas, Loren Schaumberg, and Traesti Luther. Alexandra and Traesti are friends of my daughter’s. She had lived up in Bellingham several times and I had graduated there from Western Washington University. I went up to visit her for my birthday and we got to go see the band’s CD release party at the Circus Guild’s building in Fairhaven. I walked in and heard them playing on stage that night and was struck by the professionalism and fresh sound they had. Once they got off stage I got to meet them and they gave me their CD for my birthday. They refused to take my money (so I gave them a donation to help out). They had a very pleasant charm and I could understand my daughter being friends with them. They both have a connection to Iceland (my daughter loves it here). And I love this band’s music.

Murdock and bands….

Murdock and two of his friends in grade school wanted to start a band. Partly becuase of The Barons (see above) They asked the older brother for help but he didn’t have the time. Murdock had started guitar lessons years before in second grade but stopped after about a year. His older brother in the band had given him his first guitar and amp in a case from Sears, a Silvertone. One of the friends played drums. Had they gotten even a little interest, help and direction, even though The Barons failed in the end, the younger guys could have possibly been something. Who knows?

Mudhoney – “Got to hang at their house back in the early 90s. Fun place, saw lots of photos one of their girlfriends took who showed me around. Band was on the road but it was kind of cool just walking around and all. smile emoticon She was a stripper at a place a gay friend of mine managed.
It occurs to me you might wonder why I say he’s gay. He’s my best friend since about 1979 and I met him through my girlfriend who he’d known for years in school. He was gay and could go into the stripper’s dressing area and they didn’t care. He’s gay, right? So I said, “Well I could be gay for a day.” And he said, “Uh, no.” I said, “Well, they wouldn’t know.” And yes, he said, “I would.” lol I knew he’d say that.”

Ron Gardner Band – Murdock scripted a music video once for the band by request of someone working with the band. Although the script was written in short time, by time it was turned in it was 1) not liked (to be honest) as having been too questionable” and 2) he had stopped working with the band who decided to go another direction.

Live It Outloud!– A worthy program to mention here. Developed and run in part by Murdock’s brother in law, Joe Wilson for Ted Brown Music in Tacoma it is a program for kids to learn in a rock school format how to be in a band and play on stage. It’s an eight week course for 12-18 year olds and has been going since 2011. It’s a great thing! Other programs from around the nation are coming and watching how they are doing things. If you get a chance, attend their yearly finale show or any of their lead up shows mostly at Jazz Bones. Murdock has attended the last few years of this show in support.

Jeff Ament (of Pearl Jam) – During Jeff Ament’s membership in the band Green River, he worked at the now gone Tower Video in Seattle as a Media Buyer and store clerk. This hasn’t been reported anywhere other than by Murdock as far as we can discover. Memories of Jeff are very positive. He was a very nice guy. Though attractive girls would sometimes watch him from the sidewalk outside the front window and embarrassed him. When he left the company he told Murdock that he was going to try and make it as a real professional musician. Murdock told him that of all the people at the store or that he knew, Jeff was the one who could make it. He said this in part due to Jeff’s lack of drug use and serious professional demeanor and he meant it. Jeff looked down for a moment, then said that he really appreciated it and that it meant a lot to him. Which I have to say, made Murdock feel pretty good too.
They never saw one another again after Jeff left and Murdock became the Media Buyer as well as one of three supervisors and he lived with the manager of the store and were friends since they worked previously at the Tower Video and Tower Records store in Tacoma. One day about a month after Jeff left, Murdock returned from lunch to be informed by an employee that Jeff had stopped by and asked to see him. They said had told him that he was at lunch and would be back shortly. He said he would try back later. That was the last Murdock every heard of Jeff until one day many years later he saw him on TV in the new super band, Pearl Jam. Now living with his new wife he called his old friend and manager about it to find he already know all about it. Sadly, Murdock had wanted to see Jeff in his band when they worked together but he barely had money for food. He had hoped for an invite or a pass to get in but it never happened. But only it’s is surmised because Jeff was shy about his playing in a band, totally misinterpreting Murdock’s level of interest.

Cinderella – As an employee at Tower Video in Seattle, next door was Tower Records. Records got the “in stores” of bands. Video got in stores of mostly Playboy Playmates (and that’s another tale that ended up at midnight at the bar atop the Space Needle). The “hair band” Cinderella did an ins store one day. Employees from Records kept coming over to Video to escape the band’s demands and prima donna act. One Record’s employee said he was going to punch one of the band members if he didn’t shut up, or get away from him. Many others bigger bands had done in stores and acted like adults. I don’t think they were asked back.