http://janesaddiction.org/tour/tour_det ... tourID=397
The third paragraph from the bottom of this article confirms this show.Paper: Houston Chronicle
Title: It's a blues-blastin' kind of weekend on local club scene
Date: September 24, 1987
LAST month Big Dave over at Cafe L.A. moved his bar from the middle of the room
to the side, opening some breathing space in the venue and exposing the stage to
the customers.Customers? Did somebody mention customers? Cafe L.A. does not do
boffo box office as a matter of habit, never did as Zippers or Misty's or even
as the U.S. Bar & Grill. Something about the place.
But the location is great, the room is good, and as kind of a grand
re-opening, you see, Cafe L.A. is hosting a blues weekend tonight through Sunday
that should sport the best music in clubland this first full weekend of autumn,
with two or three exceptions.
Tonight, it's Joey Long, longtime area blues and country guitarist who
usually plays such joints as the Gin Mill and the Cedar Lounge, with its daily
afternoon "pressure cookers," where a bunch of good ole boys and gals drink
beer, tell lies and roar into the evening all primed on that good honky-tonk
ambiance.
Friday at Cafe L.A., it's Chicago blues guitarist Fenton Robinson, who now
lives between Chicago and St. Louis in Springfield, Ill. A quiet sort, Robinson
is one of the least-known bluesmen of his generation, but he's universally
admired in hard-core blues circles as a bluesman who will venture into unusual
territory, stocking his otherwise hard leads with sweet jazz-type runs
(influenced by seminal Texas blues guitarist T-Bone Walker) and unexpected bass
lines. For credentials, his "I Hear Some Blues Downstairs" album was nominated
for a Grammy in 1979.
Robinson was born in Mississippi in 1935, moved to Memphis where he was to
play in the burgeoning Beale Street district, built his first "guitar" out of
broom wire and first recorded - "Tennessee Woman" - at the age of 20. He later
recorded another version of the song for Houston's Duke Records, which was
scoring in the '50s with Junior Parker and Bobby Blue Bland.
He moved to Little Rock, then to Chicago at age 26, where he built a solid
reputation in the West Side juke joints. He grew tired, though, of the low pay,
back-stabbing and other niceties of the music biz and on several occasions
seriously considered quitting.
Robinson has also survived several marriages, widespread music circle
criticism of his conversion to the Islamic religion in 1968 and a nine-month
stay in the penitentiary on an involuntary manslaughter charge stemming from a
1969 car accident in which a pedestrian was killed.
Robinson will be backed in his Cafe L.A. performance by the Essential Blues
Band.
Saturday and Sunday, same club, it's the much anticipated return of Nick
Gravenites, former running buddy with all the Chicago white bluesmen such as
Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield and, of course, a graduate of Electric
Flag. Gravenites, who now lives in Northern California, played Fitzgerald's
about a year ago, perhaps longer, and he absolutely slayed me with his big,
blustery, throaty guitar style that rocks those blues like they've got no bone.
Trust me on this one, Slim. Anyone professing to love rockin'-blues must not
miss this man, and you've got two nights to work it out.
The Essential Band will also serve as Nick the Greek's backup. Killer show,
Bud, pass the word.
Other Critic's Choices for the weekend are confined to John Mooney & the
Bluesiana Band, Friday and Saturday at Chelsea's 804; the Tom Russell Band,
Friday and Saturday at Anderson Fair; and, but of course, John Hiatt, Saturday
at Rockefeller's.
I've heralded Mooney before, and his status hasn't changed: He's the best
white blues slide guitarist going, except for perhaps Ry Cooder, and his
Bluesiana boys cook up those swamp rhythms real tasty like. I mean, Mooney and
Nick the Greek in town the same weekend is almost too much to bear.
Tom Russell, who now lives in Brooklyn, performed in Austin in the mid-'70s
as half of the Hardin & Russell duo, recording two albums, " Ring of Bone" and
"Wax Museum". He's now stepping up to the Rounder label, which is releasing his
new LP, "The Road to Bayamon", Oct. 1. Russell's songs have been recorded by
Nanci Griffith, and the two have collaborated on a song for Griffith's next LP.
Russell's honky tonk music has been described as somewhere between Hank Williams
and the hard-edged Bakersfield Sound. A fella could do worse.
John Hiatt is touring on a solid new LP, "Bring the Family", and although
his road show has been preceded by glowing reports from the front, it's a shame
that the aforementioned Ry Cooder, who appears on the album, will not be with
him. Oh, he did an LA gig with Hiatt before a crowd of industry execs who
wouldn't know a slide guitar from a slide rule, but ole shy Ry does not tour
frequently, which, like the NFL players strike, just hurts everybody. Hey Ry,
the weather down here is great, plane fares are cheap, the natives friendly.
Still, the focus is on Hiatt, once a brooding, tortured "artiste" and an
angry young man who has, well, grown up a bit. Hiatt may be considered America's
answer to Elvis Costello, a gifted songwriter with just enough of an attitude to
be misunderstood. Starting out on the folk circuit, the Indiana-born Hiatt
careened through a number of images and styles that commercial radio, natch,
never heard of before we, the slowly growing audience, finally figured it out:
He's a rocker.
Opening for Hiatt will be - I'm in a mood for superlatives today - Texas'
best hillbilly-rock band, the Wagoneers (one show, 9 p.m.), who I keep telling
you are on their way to a future in this business and who are getting a good
look-see by A&M Records, which happens to be Hiatt's label. I am told that A&M
has bought a number of tickets for this show and will send at least one A&R
person to scout the Wagon guys.
Is that a fine weekend or what?
POP NOTES: Noted Houston advertising man Bruce Henry Davis can't even go out
of business after having tried lo these many years. So, it's his 14th annual
Going Out of Business Party, tonight at Fitzgerald's. "It's time to pull the
plug," says BHD. Free draft beer while it lasts, with talent supplied by
somebody named Miss Molly & the Passions, whoever they are...
Contrary to rumor, Rockefeller's is not being sold at this time. Instead,
the club has booked some interesting acts, one of which, Jane's Addiction (9
p.m. Sunday), is said to be an outstanding metal/funk/punk band. They just
signed with Warner Bros. following an intense bidding war. For two bucks, it
might be the sleeper of the weekend...
Another curiosity Sunday that might well please are the Wildwood Pickers, an
"all-gal" traditional bluegrass quintet, playing the Long Branch Cafe, 2048
Gessner (932-9602)... Yet another cracked idea has one attending the Elastic
Find, who are by no means ordinary, at the Last Concert Cafe tonight. First,
you've got to find the place (1403 Nance in the warehouse district)...
Bourbon Street nightclub (2030 Bingle) is hosting a benefit Sunday for the
Houston Area Women's Center. The all-day affair begins at 1 p.m. Admission is $5
to groove to a who's who of local bands: Private Numbers, Chainsaw Party Dogs,
Dr. Rockit, Lisa, Marie & Kim, the Roommates, Tommie Lee Bradley, The Blanks,
Special Forces, Connie Mims, The Headhunters, Lips & the Trips, Herschel Berry,
Square 1, Sheri Beeson and Harry & Kathryn Prince. All cover charges and a
percentage of bar sales w ill go to the Women's Center...
Hard to believe the lucky folks that attended got in for only two bucks.
