One of my guitar students, who happens to love Hendrix (don't we all), gave me a CD last night which was a copy of a bootleg done in Ottawa, Canada in 1968. Not a great recording but you can really really hear that giant sound and tone Hendrix got live. My favourite part was when he says to the audience "let me breathe" and then goes into a 5 minute session of simply making sounds with the Strat. For those who think he did most of his cool sounds in the studio, think again. This is absolutely on-the-edge, insane, jaw-dropping Strat abuse, a real explosion of pure sound, no melody or chords. And if that ain't enough, it happens to be the intro to Purple Haze.
For me, the coolest thing about this bootleg is that I was AT that concert. Yep 40 years ago. It sure brought back memories. I was a teenage guitar player who had NO IDEA one could make an outdated and un-cool surf guitar sound like THAT. I had a front row seat in the old movie theatre where he played and was seated no more than 15 ft away from the stage, right in front of Hendrix. I left feeling like I had been hit by a crosstown bus and knocked into an alternate reality. Lots of guys do that kind of thing now, but for those of you who remember the time, hearing it for the first time was ... transformative.
Let's hear from some of you guys about that one concert that blew you away. Doesn't have to be from the distant past like mine.