Jimi Hendrix Miami Pop Festival (2013)

From amazon.com

This is a show recorded at a time when songs like Foxey Lady ,Hey Joe ect.. were still tolerable and fun for Jimi to play, so those early songs and the rest are played with a freshness and fire that would eventually evaporate due to Jimi’s musical growth, wanting to move on to other things..

Hey Joe- begings with Jimi turning the volume all the way up and creating a wall of feedback as he uses cord voicings,3rds,hammer on’s the wha wha pedal and whammy bar, to make beautiful music out of feedback as he lauches into one of the best versions (my opinion)of Hey Joe. I like the Monterey Hey Joe and the Berkeley versions the best, I now put this one up there with those as one of my favorites.
Foxey Lady- is scorching white hot and Jimi is having lot’s of fun playing it (just look at the video)

Fire- a high octane version, like most are,but again these songs at this time are not frustrating for Jimi to play and you can tell he’s having a good time playing it.
Tax Free- A rude,dynamic smokin hot early version of this tune that’s shorter than the Winterland versions as Jimi was still developing it,Jimi makes Jimi use out of the whammy bar and wha wha petal as he drives Mitch and Noel as fast and hard as they could be driven.

I Don’t Live Today- absolute feed back laced assault- sounds of guided missles flying, H- bombs expolding ,sounds of rocket ships taking off and crashing,are all simulated by Jimi coaxing feedback from his stratocaster and rocking the living daylights out of this song.

Hear My Train A Comin’- This is a new song for Jimi and the band, it’s not as formulated as it later would be, so really shouldn’t be compared to other versions like Berkeley ect.. as he says we only played this once before, so you can hear them at times feeling around the song, but who cares! Jimi burns when he solo’s and there are things done on this version that on later vesions you wouldn’t hear.

Red House- this is a really unique version- (they all are) this one, mostly beacuse Jimi puts down his strat , as he sometimes did for this tune( Stockholm 69 playing a Gibson SG, Isle Of Wright playing the Flying V) and plays this one with a Gibson Les Paul (its’ obvious by the tone,sound and riffs Jimi’s playing-Jimi had a black 55′ Les Paul that had the “Bigsby tremlo whammy bar” that you can hear him using and there’s a picture on back of the booklet from that day with Jimi playing the Les Paul, you can see some better pic of It- @www.mylespaul.com/forums/vintage-les-pauls/jimi-hendrixs-1955-les-paul-custom.)

During the first few minutes Jimi is getting a warm ,bluesy tone as he plays some really beautiful licks and runs while singing, Jimi starts to solo and plays some of his best blues riffs and expressions you’ll ever hear on Red House , ( my fav’s -Randalls Isle, San Diego,Isle Of Wright and now this version)intensifying and building up to the point where at 5:30 all hell breaks loose as Jimi turns it all the way up unleashing all the volume, power and fury from his amps and taking the blues where only Jimi could take them.

I have to give this cd 5 stars beacuse of the bands preformance and Jimi’s guitar playing,which is all top notch.

Mitch Mitchel and Noel Redding provide a tight, flawless backup for Jim and all of his unpredicable cues and spontaneous playing. Michael Lang the concert promoter said that somone slipped Jimi and the boys STP on the way to the show and were blasted when they took the stage,-how many musicians or bands today can do such a drug and turn out such a tight preformance?

Some have complained about lack of material- but how much was there at this early stage?.. Electric Lady was still being recorded and not yet released.

If you a Jimi freak you must have this. For others- it all depends on what you like and your taste in music.