TOY TIGER • LOUISVILLE, KY
June 16, 1998
Reviewed and contributed by Matt Rouse
I attended the June 16th show at the Toy Tiger in Louisville, KY. The show didn't start until 9pm, but I got there around 6:30pm to make sure I didn't miss anything. A local radio station van was there playing music and I got to watch the roadies unload stuff from Jerry's equipment bus. I saw Sean get on and off the equipment bus a few times and Jerry walked by from the back of it. My jaw kinda dropped seeing them in person and within 20 feet of me across a fairly empty parking lot. They were talking to some of the roadies and I didn't want to bother them. It wasn't long before they wandered back into the bar through the front door anyways.
I found a kid my age and we talked until they let us inside. We were almost the first in line, so when we got to the stage area of the bar, we were able to stand right up front in the middle. Without a doubt, we had the best spots in the house! A popular local band (which was VERY good, IMO) called 'Almost Noah' played for the first 40 minutes. Then, a horrible speed/punk band called 'Zeke' got up and played a bunch of crap for the next 40 minutes. 'Zeke' seems to be traveling with Jerry's band, so I'm curious what the relation is. Outside the bar, they were selling their CD and t-shirts at the same booth where Jerry's stuff was. Also, Jerry's bassist was wearing a shirt with 'Zeke' written on it. I hate to disrespect them, since they must be friends of Jerry's or something, but I really thought they sucked.
After the opening acts, Jerry took the stage. Sean was now wearing a dress shirt and neck tie (As opposed to the white t-shirt he had on before the show). Chris DeGarmo had a black dew rag on his head and he looked exactly like Carlos Santana without the grey hair and wrinkles. They started with "Devil By His Side". The keyboard player was jumping around the stage holding the keyboard by it's stand and playing it. Unfortunately, one of the clips holding it to the stand came loose and it fell to the floor in the middle of the song. A roadie quickly ran out while the rest of the band played on and took care of the situation. He had it back together and working when the next song started. I don't remember exactly which order the songs were played in after the first one, but the setlist was nearly identical to what they played at the other warm-up shows.
About halfway through the show, Jerry started throwing out a few picks in the audience. They were going over our heads in the front row, so me and a lot of other people in the front put our hands out. A cute dark haired girl who was 1 person to the right of me was the first to get one placed in her hand by Jerry. He then started giving picks to the guys with their hands out. I was about the 4th person he got to, and some greedy fucker behind me tried to grab it from Jerry as he was handing it to me. It ended up landing on the floor between the stage and the blockers that kept the fans back. This happened to someone else as well, because when Jerry went into the next song, there were two picks laying on the ground only inches in front of me. Me and my friend both tried to hang over the blocker and grab them, but some blonde girl about 2 people to the right of me managed to get the pick closest to my friend. The pick I was after was still laying there, partially concealed under a thick black speaker cable. There was a huge security guard sitting on the left end of the blockers watching so that no one would try to climb on stage and he was kind enough to creep over and hand me the pick when I pointed it out to him. Someone actually tried to grab it out of the guard's hand as he was giving it to me, but he made sure I got it.
Right around the time of the pick ordeal, Jerry announced the next song by saying "This one is probably one of your parents' or your grandparents' favorites." Then they played something by Hank Williams! I have no idea what song it was, but it was cool as hell to hear Jerry play it. Some time after the Hank Williams song, Jerry also did his impression from the Unplugged concert: "Wrote a song 'bout it. Wanna here it? Here it goes..." He said some other funny stuff too, but I can't remember it exactly.
After that, they played a few more and Jerry (who had been switching guitars after each song) finally made it to his G&L Rampages. First, he used one that had a lot of marijuana leaf stickers on it, and a couple cool little sayings like "FUCK the DEA" and "Thank you for POT smoking". Then he switched to the legendary Rampage that he's had since the beginning. Just seeing that guitar up close, in person was cool as hell.
They finished up the show and Jerry threw out the rest of the picks on his mike stand into the audience. Sean walked out to the front of the stage and handed out each of his drum sticks to different people. I almost got one... :( We cheered and chanted "Jerry!" for a few minutes and one of the roadies came out and re-loaded Jerry's mike stand with about 10 more picks. They came back out and played a Pink Floyd song. Jerry tossed out the pick he used and then left for the last time. One of the roadies who was taking down his mike stand tossed out a few picks that somehow ended up on the stage floor. There were only about 2 laying there, and for some strange reason the roadie didn't throw out the other 10 picks still stuck on his mike stand. Some people searched the floor, but I think it was a lost cause by then.
After the show, about 20-30 people stuck around by his bus and he came out and kept the crowd happy. He let people get their pictures taken with him, he signed posters, t-shirts, and even kissed a girl who asked him to. He signed my ticket stub, and let me shake his hand. All I could say was something like "You fuckin' rule man...". Jerry smiled and said "Thanks a lot, I really appreciate that." It seemed like a response he probably already gave to 20 other people that night, but he sounded sincere. Shortly after, the tour bus pulled out of the parking lot. Truly an incredible night. (And by far the best $12 I ever spent in my life!).
