Live Nation presents Acoustic-4-A-Cure IV featuring Sammy Hagar and friends
the Fillmore
1805 Geary Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94109-7217 USA
8:00 PM, Monday, May 15, 2017

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[8:10 PM lights down, introductory thanks from Benioff hospital president Mike Anderson and Dr. Jean Nakamura; Sammy and Vic out to start things off]
Sammy Hagar segment

1. [8:13 PM] Sam I Am (SH: vox; VJ: acoustic slide guitar)
2. [8:17 PM] Personal Jesus (SH: acoustic guitar, vox; VJ: acoustic guitar)
3. [8:21 PM] Father Time (Sammy announces this one as a brand new tune, Vic sits out; SH: acoustic guitar, vox)
4. [8:26 PM] Right Now (SH: acoustic 12-string guitar, vox; VJ: acoustic guitar)
   [drop Vic; Sammy introduces Bob Weir, then leaves Weir to play alone]
   Bob Weir segment
5. [8:32 PM] Peggy-o (BW: acoustic guitar, vox)
   [add Ruth Davies: electric contrabass; Mick Fleetwood: drums; Steve Vai: acoustic guitar]
6. [8:39 PM] Easy to Slip >
7. [8:44 PM] Only a River >
8. [8:48 PM] the Other One >
9. [8:52 PM] Loose Lucy (add Sammy Hagar: co-lead vox, piano-noodling)
   [drop BW; Sammy introduces Don Felder: acoustic guitar, vox; SH leaves]
   Don Felder segment
10. [9:01 PM] Tequila Sunrise
    [add Vic, SV swaps to 12-string acoustic guitar]
11. [9:04 PM] Hotel California
    [9:11 PM, drop all; Sammy tells a vacation/party story and introduces Sarah McLachlan: piano, vox; SH leaves McLachlan to play alone]
    Sarah McLachlan segment
12. [9:13 PM] Posession
13. [9:18 PM] Adia
14. [9:23 PM] Beautiful Girl
    [add Ruth Davies]
15. [9:27 PM] Angel
    [9:32 PM, all off; SH out to yack and share video greeting from James Hetfield; SH brings up the next act: Pat Benatar: vox; and Neil Giraldo: acoustic guitar; performing with backing tracks]
    Pat Benatar segment
16. [9:37 PM] Love Is a Battlefield
17. [9:44 PM] Ties That Bind
18. [9:49 PM] We Belong
19. [9:53 PM] Heartbreaker » [9:55 PM] Ring of Fire » [9:56 PM] Don't Slander Me (Roky Erickson cover) » [9:58 PM] Heartbreaker (reprise)
    [9:59 PM all off; pause; add Ruth Davies: electric contrabass; Mick Fleetwood: drums; Steve Vai: acoustic guitar]
    Steve Vai/Mick Fleetwood segment
20. [10:02 PM] (unidentified solo guitar piece from Steve Vai) » [add Taylor Hawkins at 2nd drum kit behind Steve]
21. [10:05 PM] (unidentified instrumental; MF: talking drum)
    [add SH: vox; VJ: acoustic guitar]
22. [10:11 PM] World Turning
    [10:20 PM all off; Sammy introduces Dave Grohl: acoustic guitar, vox; SH leaves Grohl to play alone]
    Dave Grohl segment
23. [10:22 PM] Times Like These
    [add Rami Jaffee: piano]
24. [10:29 PM] My Hero
    [10:35 PM, add TH: drums, harmony vox; Dave mentions that the next tune is brand new]
25. [10:37 PM] the Sky Is a Neighborhood
    [drop RJ, TH]
26. [10:42 PM] Everlong
    [10:47 PM, that's a wrap! Sammy calls everybody back onstage to hug and bow, no encore]

• Pat Benatar: vox;
• Ruth Davies: electric contrabass;
• Don Felder: acoustic guitar, vox;
• Mick Fleetwood: drums;
• Neil Giraldo: acoustic guitar, harmony vox;
• Dave Grohl: acoustic guitar, vox;
• Sammy Hagar: acoustic guitar, acoustic 12-string guitar, vox;
• Taylor Hawkins: drums, vox;
• Rami Jaffee: piano
• Vic Johnson: acoustic guitar, acoustic slide guitar, harmony vox;
• Sarah McLachlan: piano, vox;
• Steve Vai: acoustic guitar, acoustic 12-string guitar;
• Bob Weir: acoustic guitar, vox.

Tonight's gig was pretty fun, even with the hassle of an extra long, slow line to get in, and another long, slow line to get out. We arrived just after the doors opened, about 6:30 PM, waited outside 30-45 minutes, then entered to claim a decent spot on the floor, dead center, about 20' back from stage. Would have been just exactly perfect except that the crowd was in an eager mood (and so crushed forward quite a bit more than they needed to), and we seemed to be surrounded by an unusual proportion of tall, inconsiderate loudmouths who felt that it was always important to share whatever notion popped into their head, no matter whether it was the middle of a quiet tune or not. Yarg. All night long, I did my best to tune them out, but it was definitely a struggle not to loose my cool.

Sammy was a great host – in case you didn't already know, the guy really knows how to throw a party – and he did a great job keeping things rolling along with nary a hiccup. Well, unless you count forgetting some of the lyrics to Sam I Am at the start of the show. His new tune, Father Time was interesting: a quiet, reflective meditation regarding how that bastard comes around to beat us all down eventually.

I was kinda surprised about the level of “who's that?” chatter when Weir first came onstage, but grateful that most folks quieted down to listen to him perform instead of continuing to yack. Once the band joined in, things got typically loose. Now and then Bob would flash hand signals to one band member or another, and they would give him a confused WTF look while soldiering onward. Ruth seemed to have the best handle on the situation – maybe she has prior experience playing with Bobby? You know those awkward not-quite-segue transitions that have been a feature of Dead and Company shows? Tonight revealed them to be a Bobby thing: he tried them between every tune, and in my opinion, none of them were smooth in any way. I suppose the problem could be that my ears just aren't tunes to Bobby's plane of vibration, but the quizzical looks from some of the band members suggest I'm not alone! So anyways, if you can excuse a train wreck or two, Weir's mini-set was good fun!

I was a little disappointed that Don Felder's segment was so short – only two songs? Sheesh! I was hoping to hear something like Victim of Love or Those Shoes, though I guess the latter probably wouldn't cut it as an acoustic tune, and maybe they didn't have enough rehearsal time to work things up for the former tune (or anything more than the two we got).

Sarah McLachlan's segment earns top marks both for sedating the talkers in the crowd AND for the loudest, uninvited sing-along choruses. I enjoyed her tunes quite a bit. It would have been a kick to hear Sammy join her on harmony vox, but he must have been busy offstage bar-tending, because he dashed in to hand her a stiff drink at the end of her segment.

For me, the subsequent set from Pat Benatar and Neil Geraldo was the weakest of the night. I appreciated that they took time to insert a bit of friendly banter in-between the tunes, but I thought Neil came off as a bit pretentious, and then, backing tracks, really? Aren't the songs strong enough to stand on their own with just a guitar? The Heartbreaker medley was a fun closer – I guess they've been performing it that way for a few years now – and any chance to shine a little additional light on the forgotten genius of Roky Erickson is fine with me. Maybe Neil isn't as much of a peacock as he seems.

Steve Vai's segment was probably the most energetic of the night (two drummers can definitely pump up the volume a bit!), though Dave Grohl fans might want to argue that point. I wish Steve had taken a moment to introduce his two tunes. The first was a pseudo-flamenco guitar piece – either entirely solo, or perhaps with some occasional drum counterpoint from Mick – while the second instrumental has vanished into the tangled incoherence of my memory. I was there! It happened! I can't say anything about it beyond repeating the brief note above that it featured Mick Fleetwood playing a medium-sized talking drum instead of his kit. Poking around the interwebs, I found a short article excerpting a 2014 interview where Mick states he's been playing that particular drum since 1969!. Come to think of it, Micks' kit deserves mention. Instead of regular trap set like that used by Taylor, Mick sat on (and played) a cajon, with a non-standard array of smaller drums and cymbals around him. No tom-toms. No kick drum. Different!

World Turning was probably the high point of the show. Sammy was into it. The band was into it, and the drummers were definitely into it! Mick started out on the talking drum, but switched over to using his full set for a crazy duet with Taylor Hawkins. Way fun! And Taylor was gushing about it ('I got to duet with Mick Fleetwood tonight!') when he came back onstage later on to play with Dave Grohl, who laughed and commented “Bucket list!”

Dave's sweet, unassuming persona came shining through, both in his banter, and in his choice of songs. I'm sure most of us present would have been happy to hear him play another 20 or 30 minutes, even if it would keep us up that much later on a Monday night. In fact, I was more than a little surprise when Sammy wrapped things up by calling everyone out to bow once Dave finished his mini set. No grand finale? It's not even 11 PM? Heck! The Red Rocker must be learning to respect limits these days: I was tired and hurting, but still wanted more. Instead, I headed outside to cool down and stand in line awhile on Fillmore street, waiting to pick up a t-shirt – the physical manifestation of my reward for supporting the Benioff Children's Hospital. Strangely, there were no free posters tonight, though an event poster was for sale at the merch counter, and may have been given away to the higher level donors.

Jim Harrington posted a quick review for the Mercury News – thanks Jim, you helped me catch an error in my setlist!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2017 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2017 event list! ☸ On to the next event!