Steppenwolf at the Hatch Shell

[Pete70s]

Saturday night I got to see a childhood favorite of mine, doing a free concert in Boston... John Kay and Steppenwolf! Rick Derringer was the opening act, and he was AMAZING! Did a blistering set of rockers and blues numbers (including a cover of "Pride and Joy"). It was just him, a bassist and a drummer. Simple power trio. Great stuff! Did "Hang On Sloopy", "Real American" (Yes Adam, Hulk Hogan's song!), and "Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo", which Danny Johnson, Steppenwolf's current guitarist, joined them onstage for.

Then Steppenwolf came out. They opened with "Sookie Sookie" and did a decent mix of old and new (too much "new" in my opinion. Most people only really know the stuff on the old ABC/Dunhill albums. It would have been OK if they did a long concert, but the show was relatively short and should have had more classics. These are the only songs they did from 68-71:

Sookie Sookie
Rock Me
Hey Lawdy Mama
Hoochie Koochie Man
Ride With Me (It was worth going just to hear this!!)
Magic Carpet Ride
Born To Be Wild
The Pusher (Encore)

The rest of the set was from later albums.

It was a good show, and a good night out. It just would've been nice to hear stuff like "Everybody's Next One", "Take What You Need", "Don't Step On The Grass, Sam", "Monster", "Jupiter's Child", "For Ladies Only", etc....

One more thing: John announced that next year will be their last year of touring, so if you have a chance to see them, go!

[Dawn]

Very cool, Pete! I hadn't realized Steppenwolf were still touring, but I'd like to catch one of their shows. Rick Derringer's set sounds like it was awesome as well.

[Ken]

Right on Pete

It sounds like you had a blast!


I have some video footage of John Kay and Steppenwolf that MuchMoreMusic (Canada's equivalent to VH-1) shot at a Classic Rock Festival in Minnedosa, Manitoba back around '97 or so and they sounded great.

They interviewed John and while he was talking he was autographing albums and other memorabilia that fans had brought with them.

[H2IZCOOL]

Sounds like a great concert, Pete! Nice to know that you can still see "name" people doing free concerts.

I remember the Hatch Shell well. When I was a kid, my family used to go there often during the summer to see the Boston Pops.

[m c dornan]

I used to live in Boston and loved the Summerthing shows at the Hatch Shell! Does Fat City still perform at the hatch?

Never seen Steppenwolf live, but I have a sense of them live cuz I have their "Live at the Matrix" LP (awesome long version of "Pusher"!)

[Dawn]

Mark and I went to the Summer Jubilee concert in Alhambra this past Saturday, and John Kay and Steppenwolf were one of the acts (Chuck Negron and Felix Cavaliere & the Rascals were the other two.)

Great show. John looked and sounded fantastic, and really got the crowd involved. The set list was similar to the show you saw Pete, except that The Pusher wasn't played (though they may have run out of time, as it was around 10 PM when they began their set), but they did include Monster, which was very well received.

John did mention that they were half way through their last concert tour, so I'm glad I got the chance to see them.

[55dodger]

My daugher & son-in-law saw Steppenwolf in May this year with the Guess Who as the opening act at the Riverfeast in Wichita. They had a great time, loved the music. Yes, they recognized most of the music, thanks to me.