On July 30th of 2011 keyboardist Ray Manzarek of The Doors was playing a gig at the Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis. He was there playing with slide-guitar legend Roy Rogers. I love the Doors and I knew it was going to be a great show, but I decided to skip it. If I remember correctly, I believe I went to a picnic at Karl Bremer’s house that Saturday afternoon and had a great time. It was a long hot day, I was tired and slightly buzzed and did not feel like driving to a concert later that night. I reasoned that I would just see him the next time he came to town. Unfortunately the time never came around as Ray was taken down by cancer less than two years later at the age of 74. A chance to see a member of the freaking Doors came and went and I blew it.
Well a couple of months ago I learned that the guitar player for The Doors Robby Krieger was playing a concert on 3/13/15 at the Medina Ballroom, just a couple of miles down the road from my house. I was not going to make the mistake of missing the only remaining touring member of the Doors again. At the age of 69, who knows when/if he will be touring again. I think I might have seen him and his band back in the early 1990’s at some outdoor rock festival in Chicago, but I am not sure I am remembering that correctly. Anyways, about a month ago I logged in to my computer to get a ticket for the show and I scored a seat in the front table, dead center of the stage.
Reserving a spot at a certain table however just guarantees you a seat at that table, but not which seat. That is on a first-come first-serve basis. The doors opened at 7:30 pm so I got there at 7:00 pm just as people were starting to show up and I was the first in line. When the doors opened I ran to the front and scored the best seat in the house next to the stage. The eight of us at the table were all excited as we introduced ourselves and ordered drinks while waiting for the show to start. In addition to running into a few old friends including Pat and Patty Sundberg a couple of tables away, I made some new friends at my table.
The guy sitting directly across from me was a huge blues guy and he was so impressed that my uncle Tony was a famous harp player that he bought me a drink and he gave me a poster. I also stunned my table (all of them complete ‘Doors’ freaks) with the story of how my uncle had actually sat in and played with the Doors on November 10th, 1968 at the Minneapolis Auditorium. Then before our show a KQRS radio DJ came out to talk-up the crowd. He put the mic in some guys face at the table next to ours and asked him his favorite Doors memory or story. He mumbled something while everyone on my table was trying to get the DJ’s attention so that he could ask me the same question…they wanted me to relay the ‘uncle-with-Doors’ story. No such luck. But I did catch a couple of tee-shirts they were tossing out from the stage. They were medium Sniper shirts from the recent ‘American Sniper’ movie which I had zero use for though so I gave them to a couple of girls near me.
It was all-around a fun show. In the front-center table I was kicked back in my seat with my left arm on the stage. It was great seeing a living legend while he is still able to play, at a nightclub just down the street. Most fans know practically every Doors song by heart, note for note, and it was cool seeing the guitarist make those notes happen live in concert 12-inches in front of my face. The drummer and keyboard player were awesome and I got the keyboardist’s autograph after the show. The kickass journeyman bass player Phil Chen played with Jeff Beck on the ‘Blow By Blow’ album, as well as with many other musical heroes including Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff to name a few. Robby’s son Waylon Krieger on vocals was a bit rough and made me cringe a few times, but who other than Jim wouldn’t make me cringe singing those songs. He got better as the night went on, but the main focus was Robby of course.
Before the encore Waylon was signing a couple of autographs from the stage. The guy next to me was practically wetting his pants he was so excited but he could not get Waylon’s attention. So I took his cd and waved it to Waylon who came over to sign. Then in a burst of inspiration as I was handing him the cd and Sharpie I asked him: “Do you think you could sign it – ‘Jim Morrison’?” He looked at me like he didn’t know if he should laugh or punch me, so I cut the tension by laughing and slapping him on the shoulder and saying I was sorry, just kidding and that he had done a great job. All in all it was a great night. Here is the monster set list on this first night of the tour. Judging by the much shorter set lists I found online for the following nights, we got a good one.
Encore:
