Peter Frampton – Chateau Ste Michelle Winery: August 24 2014

Tonight was Peter Frampton at Chateau Ste Michelle Winery in Woodinville Washington. I love this venue (especially on a sunny summer evening), but the fact that it is a winery and they have wine sales in the venue during the show, and no apparent limit on how much you can buy, inevitably the crowd gets drunk and belligerent about half way though the show although tonight I was pleasantly surprised with the lack of inebriation around me. How refreshing.

I was a little worried about taking photos given Peter Frampton’s recent shenanigans which landed him in the news recently when he took and tossed a fan’s cell phone for filming one of his shows. They made it a point prior to him coming on stage that he doesn’t like people filming and no pictures can be taken after the third song. The photo police were out in force at song four making everyone put their cameras and phones away, so needless to say I only ended up with a few shots tonight.

The show opened up with Buddy Guy, one of the best guitarists and blues musicians on the planet, and he put on an outrageous show. He made it a point to mention how he doesn’t play from a play list and really just plays what he feels and from the vibe he gets from the audience, which seemed to really work as the crowd absolutely loved him. It was a special treat when he went walking through the crowd while he was playing. You don’t see that too often. His set was an hour, but I could have listed to him all night.

Peter Frampton came on and did a great job as well, although with the tension around the picture and video restrictions, I think people were just a little less than enthusiastic about his performance (just a smidge I think). He put on a great show however, and really demonstrated his phenomenal guitar playing ability. He jammed out solo after solo and even performed a few instrumentals. It was also pretty cool to see Don Felder come out and play Hotel California with the band.

A great night of music, but I think what I enjoyed most about the evening was driving the hour+ home with the top down on a starry, 70 degree, Seattle summer evening.. Priceless for sure.