Frampton Comes Alive

Peter Frampton came alive recently at our new favorite venue, the Snoqualmie Casino, just down the road on the 90. The place holds around 900 folks and has excellent acoustics. We had a pretty decent view in row five.


Peter’s now 59 years old and looks his age, as did most of his audience. He is good humored about it and occasionally “adjusted his teeth” during the show. I’m fairly sure it was just for laughs. A fellow in the front row said something to him which was inaudible to the rest of the audience. To which Peter replied with a very proper British accent, “Yes, I do rock. That is why I am here. Thank you, sir.”

The show opened with “Off The Hook” from the Fingerprints album and then “Signed Sealed Delivered”, followed by “Lines”. Peter prefaced the fourth song with a warning, “Please stick with us on this next song, we only just rehearsed it on the tour bus on the way here.” Of course, the band immediately launches into “Show Me The Way”

He used his famous talk-box occasionally throughout the show. (Talk-box: Small horn in enclosed box which pushes the sound through an air tube close to the microphone. Mouth is then used to modulate the sound and is picked up by the microphone). When using the talk-box he seems to be totally amused by it and trying hard to keep a straight face.

The band then left for a bit while Peter performed a solo acoustic set. While I generally prefer the hard stuff, the acoustic set was amazing. Our favorite was “Penny For Your Thoughts”. Below is a video from a couple years ago, which looks much like the show we saw; same threads and the three Marshall cabs across the front. The audio of the clip doesn’t do it justice, as the live sound was absolutely phenomenal.



This was followed by a very interesting cover, “Black Hole Sun” by those Seattle grungers, Soundgarden. He did some serious shredding during this mostly instrumental song. There was some minor use of the talk-box. However many times during the song, it sounded like the guitar was actually singing the lyrics and he was standing nowhere near the microphone.

He performed a couple songs from a CD presently in the works, and asked the audience if he should keep the songs on the CD. The crowd gave him a resounding “Yes!”

The band was very tight and composed of musicians who are well accomplished in their own right. John Regan is the bass player who has been with Peter for 30 years. He is a typical bass player who stands calmly at the side of the stage and does his job. However, a couple times when the band was really rocking, he actually moved a bit. Adam Lester was the backup guitar player, Rob Arthur played keyboards and guitar, and Dan Wojciechowski on drums completed the line up.

At then end of the set they came back for an encore with the old Humble Pie track, “I Don’t Need No Doctor” and finishing up with George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. Another fantastic cover, which would have been more aptly titled, “While My Guitar Intensely Shreds”.

For a souvenir I picked up an autographed copy of his Live in Detroit DVD. He’s around 50 years old on the cover.


For some reason, Annette says she prefers the inside photo.


Outstanding show and highly recommended to all!