BB & CB - ORILIA, ONT - AUGUST 2004
Casino Rama.  With Bee, Brother Jeffrey and Namowicz, in Orilia, Ontario.  One of Chuck's good nights.  He is thumping all night long.  A few minor glitches over the video, but as usual, the crowd is thrilled.

WALLED LAKE, MI - NOV 2003
Promoted by the superannuated Lee Alan.  A throwback to the nasty days of rock and roll in most ways.  Lee is being sued by everyone from the facility to other acts for bad checks.  Poorly organized and promoted, and a technical disaster with sound, lights and equipment.  But once adjusted, the backbeat you can't lose it.  Solid rhythm section with Bee and Ram Namowicz, who you can see smiling even in this small pic.

 FOX THEATER - DETROIT -  FEBRUARY 2001
Blowing away the blues.  Boog, Bee and Charles.  Jimmy Marsala to the right of Charles, playing bass.  This was one of the best nights ever.  Sound was good from the start.  Just the four of us.  Archetypal backbeat "you can't lose it" rhythm and blues.  Spare, focused, tight.  There was something magical about the playing, partly because of the simplicity, partly because we've been doing this for over 30 years.  We hadn't seen Jimmy for a long time, but he had played several dates in the past with Bee and me.  And hundreds with Charles.  Like us.  I told Charles he should have recorded this one.  It was a rare night.

In front of the dual showman.  What a sound! Yow!

Jerry Lee opens the show.  He is a gentleman tonight.  Warm and friendly.  He does a great show, although it is laid back by comparison to his younger days..  He and Charles embrace backstage.  Rock and Roll brothers.  A lot of miles on the road.  They show on Jerry Lee more than Charles.  But he can still tickle them ivories.

SOARING EAGLE CASINO - MT PLEASANT, MI - DECEMBER 27, 1999
I pick up Charles at the Lansing airport and we roll through the tundra to Mt. Pleasant.  The Casino is spectacular.  Sold out.  After Little Richard does his thing, we hit the stage with Jeff playing bass.  Starting without a sound check, it takes a while to get the acoustics straight.  But after a while most of it falls into place.  The room has a great sound, but the monitors are off all night.  I play the entire show without being able to hear the piano.  Hard on the fingers.  Bee can't hear the bass.  But we could do this in our sleep, so it isn't a big problem.  When we bring it down, it really rocks.  And the harp tunes hypnotize. 

Richard was not feeling well.  He didn't have the energy of the shows he did in Aspen or at the Michigan State Fairgrounds.  Age.  But the band pounds it out.

ASPEN - AUGUST 30, 1997
Following Little Richard. Boog, Bee, Charles, Bro Jeff and Chris B. Bacon on stage again. 30 years and counting. Still the back beat you can't lose it!

GUND ARENA - CLEVELAND - MARCH 28, 1998
Cleveland again.  At Gund Arena closing out another Moondog memorial promoted by old friend Henry DeLuca.  Drifters, Mary Wells, Coasters, Hank Ballard, Pure Gold.  We use Henry's rhythm section and they are solid but not subtle.  Chuck knows the difference but doesn't miss a beat.  The money player.  Later we spend a few hours over dinner talking about life and the next album project.

SECOND CHANCE SALOON - ANN ARBOR, MI 1982
BB is playing the Rhodes, which was better for funky R&B than roots rock. The Yamaha CP-70 Electric Grand soon became the piano of choice when a properly miked Steinway wasn't available. This gig included Slippery Steve Pinckney on guitar and Chris B. Bacon on Bass. And of course the reliable Bee Metros on tubs. Still one of my favorite bands. With Brother Jeffrey, basically the band on the CD WHO DO YOU LOVE. More pics from this gig coming soon.

SECOND CHANCE SALOON - ANN ARBOR, MI 1982
Charles and Boog trade licks, and instruments. While singing a duet. Second Chance Saloon, Ann Arbor, Michigan. This was in the days of the Fender Rhodes, another back breaking piano that has its own, unique sound. Funky, but more appropriate for jazz than backbeat R & B. The next step was the Yamaha CP-70, which was even more back-breaking, but at least sounded right.

COVELESKI PARK - SOUTH BEND INDIANA - SEPTEMBER 1, 1995
The night before the opening of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.  Cousin Dave on bass.  Bee & Jeff.

WRIGLEY FIELD - CHICAGO - 1984
Wrigley Field, pitcher's mound, after a ball game.  Anders "Mr. Excitement" Thompsen on second guitar.  Bee, Bro Jeff & Chris B.  In Chicago to do "Almost Famous" at the Apollo Theater.

EAST TOWN BALLROOM - DETROIT, 1970
World's greatest rock band. When you start with Chuck Berry on lead guitar, its better than having Michael Jordan on your team. Other players all virtuoso on their instruments, not to mention playing together since grade school. Three years earlier, The Woolies had opened the Grande Ballroom with the MC5, and later played several dates there with Chuck. Hit record of Who Do You Love produced by Lou Adler for ABC Dunhill in 1967. Left to right - Bee Metros, Boogie Bob, Charles, Zocko Groendal, Brother Jeffrey. This band played hundreds of dates with Chuck and still works with him.

AUDITORIUM THEATRE - CHIGAGO
The work shirt era.  One of Justin Kestenbaum's shots.   With the Hohner Electric.  Less maintenance than a Rhodes or Wurlitzer, but not much of a keyboard.  Bee, Boog, Zocko & Jeff.  The ever present dual showman.  Somehow Bee was buried stage right instead of stage center.  We went with the flow.

On this night we backed up Bo Diddley, Gary U.S. Bonds and John Lee Hooker.  The MC was Dick Biondi.  It was the night Chess was sold to GRT.  I remember Charles and Bo in the dressing room when we found out.  Reading it in a Billboard article.  Somewhat stunned.  "What are you going to do now Chuck?"  "I don't know Bo.  What are you going to do?"  It was the end of an era, to coin a phrase.  A significant era.  The development of the rhythm & blues, backbeat rock and roll Chicago sound that was the natural evolution of Elmore James and Muddy into these two rock pioneers was over.  These artists created a music that was shaped significantly by the Chess brothers both as producers and entrepreneurs.  The "sound" of Charles and Bo was the natural development of Sonny Boy, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Elmore and Muddy.  Many of the same musicians backed them up.  I played a session for Charles at Chess with Lafayette Leak and  Phil Upchurch.  Many of the old discographies list Lafayette on piano and  Willie Dixon on bass.  What a lineup!  Charles flew me in from Detroit with the Wurlitzer.  I felt a little silly setting up next to Lafayette at the grand piano.  All I wanted to do was sit and listen to him play.  Esmond Edwards was the so-called producer.  It didn't quite work out, although the album, BACK HOME, ended up with some nice cuts on it.

Esmond was patronizing and condescending.  He commented to me in the control room while Charles was doing some overdubs, that Charles was like James Brown - "the same thing over and over".  This man was a fool.  That's what ignorant people say about opera.  It all sounds the same.  Ironic that he put Charles in the same league with James, as if they both were minor players.  As it turns out they are both in the same league.  Classics.

After the show, leaving the theater we pulled off Michigan Avenue under the El.  There was Gary hanging on to a lamp post sucking on a whiskey  bottle in a brown paper bag.  Images that stick.

Rod Stewart was in town that night and we got stuck on the same floor of the Lake Shore Holiday in with him and a bunch of short musicians who were great at making a lot of noise.  The highlight of the evening was Justin pounding on their door and telling them "people are trying to sleep" around here.  Or maybe it was Justin referring to his evening with Bo Diddler...

THE WHITE HOUSE 1994
Boogie Bob and Chuck Berry at The White House  Playing for Bill Clintion's 25 year Georgetown Class Reunion. Party was held under a huge temporary canopy on the White House back lawn.  SS commandos in ninja suits with automatic weapons patrol the perimeter.  But they couldn't keep us out.  The joint was jumpin'.

McCormick Place.  Just a picture.  I have no recollection of this gig.  Except it was on the Wurlitzer and I had a mustache.  Charles was definitely not playing through that Peavey.  Somewhere in the dark are the Dual Showman.

Boogie Bob and Chuck Berry in Cleveland at the fundraiser for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on March 21, 1986. Many cities were lobbying to host the Rock Hall of Fame. This concert was instrumental in bringing it to Cleveland. We were brought on by the mayor of Cleveland and the Governor of Ohio. I told Chuck that when we started out, the politicians were trying to close us down. Now the people we grew up with were running the place. Mr. Metros, steadiest backbeat drummer in rock is on the tubs.

PINE KNOB - DETROIT, MICHIGAN - 1968
A rare shot with Boog on a wurlitzer and Zocko Groendal on bass.  About 1968 by the look of those bells..