Austin has a great music history from it's '60's origins with KAZZ FM and Sonogram Records spinning The Thirteenth Floor Elevators and The Sweetarts to The Vulcan Gas Co., Janis Joplin and Johnny Winter. The 70's saw that sweet mingling of cowboy and hippy called "Outlaw" at The Armadillo and Oat Willies to the early punk scene at Raul's, Duke's Royal Coach Inn, Club Foot, Studio 29. It's been a great ride and made Austin the live music capital of the world. Enjoy a memory or two from our ticket archives. A paper testament to Austin's music history.
| Date: | Thursday / Thursday, April 27, 1978 |
| Artist: | Bob Weir and John Vandiver |
| Venue: | Armadillo World Headquarters , Austin, TX. |
| Ticket Price: | $ 6.00 |
Bob Weir was born in Atherton, CA. in 1947. His first foray into music was a band called the Uncalled Four in early 1962. Bob met and jammed with Jerry Garcia at Dana Morgan's music Store in San Francisco in December of 1962. They maintained a friendship and formed Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions in January of 1964. In April of 1965 Jerry, Bob and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan left Mother McCree's and formed The Warlocks . In December of that year Ken Kesey, leader of the Merry Parnksters and promoter of the Electric Koolaid Acid Tests (the original raves where acid was dispensed, legally at that time, in big koolaid trashcans to all those attending), made the Warlocks the Acid Tests house band. That same month the Greateful Dead were formed. Bob Weir, the bands lead guitarist was 18 years old.
In 1977 Bob formed the The Bob Weir Band . In April of the next year this band played the aboved ticketed gig at the Armadillo.
Bob was opened by Texas blues/folk legend John Vandiver. John was murdered along with his girlfriend/manager Debbie Davison Feb. 22, 1985 in their home near Magnolia, Texas.
Robert Mendez reflects:
John Vandiver sang the blues and played guitar in the style of the legendary blues greats from Chicago to Florida. Big Bill Brounzy, Jimmie Reed and Bessie Smith were among some of his influences. He covered pop greats like Randy Newman and Van Morrison and he wrote beautiful ballads like 'Country Girl' and harmonized with folk legends from all over Texas.
During the sixties, right out of high school, he learned from greats like Mance Libscomb, and actually chauffered Mance around the southwest. He helped carry Mance's bags, and then he provided Mance an opening act, and before John turned forty, he would sing Hogey Carmichael's "Georgia On My Mind" so that it belonged to him, as much as Ray Charles. His iron worker-like fingers, armed with metal picks, never inhibited him from gracefully dancing around the first Bill Collings arch top guitar ever made while driving a baseline with his thumb which Ray Wylie Hubbard likened to a metronome. By the summer of 1977, he was a solo act. The stongest solo act many of us ever encountered.
It was this solo act that opened for Bob Weir.
Heres a great John Vandiver story by Dewey Don Lyon
What excitement! John was invited to open the show for Bob Marley and the Wailers at the old Houston Music Hall! Like John and Bob, it's an icon now gone, but hardly forgotten. He pulled me aside and asked me if I would be his stagehand for the show, and I jumped at the chance! What an honor! We showed up early for the sound check and everything went well. There were dressing rooms upstairs on either side of the stage, with John and I on one side and the Wailers on the other. We met the band during sound check and hit it off, and were invited up to their dressing room to enjoy some Jamaican hospitality. Can you imagine? Actually smokin' de spliffs with Bob Marley and the Wailers!? When we finally“floated” down the stairs, I turned and looked back up, and it was ethereal, like a scene from that movie about Shangri-La! Everything above the top stair leading to their dressing room was completely enveloped in a thick haze, like the Bay Area fog. Talk about a “stairway to heaven”, mon!
And at last, Showtime! After the emcee's introduction, John took the stage and got a pretty enthusiastic reception. He played a couple of songs, and then the chants began: “BOB MARLEY! BOB MARLEY! BOB MARLEY!” John was much man and not easily intimidated. He finished the song, pushed that arch-topped Alvarez to the side, and started laughing. He grabbed the mic with both hands, locked eyes with the audience, and said in that jolly sort of voice, “Hey, y'all! Nobody wants to see Bob Marley more than I do! Why do you think I'm right up here so close, anyway? Think about it. I got the best seat in the house! Now, here's how it is. I've been hired to play 45 minutes before the Wailers come on, and I'm gonna do it. Now, y'all can sit there and yell for Bob Marley, or you can kick back, burn one, and enjoy the show!”
Deafening silence.
Suddenly, the Hall erupted in delighted laughter and applause and people jumped to their feet and cheered! What a rush! And John? With a twinkle in his eye, he laughed that special Vandiver laugh, pulled the Alvarez back over his belly, said,“All right, then!”, and belted out: “Judge, Your Honor, won't you hear my plea, befo' you open up yo' court, ” The crowd went nuts! It was pure magic, and surely one of his best performances ever! When he finished the set, the crowd roared, “ENCORE! ENCORE!” They were pumped! He was pumped! He went back out and did “Against The Law” and had that crowd singing back to him in the way that only John could do it. It was 24-karat Vandiver gold!
As a postlude, when the Wailers came onstage, the excitement was intense, for sure, but when Bob Marley himself came out to join them, it was absolute euphoria! It was certainly one of the sweetest nights I can remember! (Well, there was that night with the Serrita twins, but that's another story, and had not a thing to do with John!)
Archives: Ticket Stub 1 Ticket Stub 2 Ticket Stub 3 Ticket Stub 4 Ticket Stub 5 Ticket Stub 6
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