Jeff Beck/SRV at the UIC Pavillion in 1989. Hands down the absolute best concert I'd ever been to, and I didn't really realize it until years later. I've been to many incredible shows, but this one really sticks out in my mind as one of those nights filled with something that was intangible, and electric. It was a spur of the moment thing too, as we'd (me and my friend Pete, the singer from Zoetrope) just got two tickets from a friend that couldn't go, so he gave them to us. We drove there kind of blindly, since I had no idea where it was (no GPS or Google Maps back then), and when we got there, we had to stop and ask a few people for some party favors, which when we finally found someone with some, were quite good. We get inside the venue as SRV is just starting his set, and thoroughly blew the roof off the place, then Jeff came out and proceeded to blow my mind with the Guitar Shop album done in it's entirety. Bozzio was a stand out too. For the finale, Jeff went into his quintessential blues rock "Going Down" when Stevie came out to join him mid-solo. Stevie brought the house down. Incredible mastery and intensity as Jeff looked on in delight and awe.
This video description says it's from the show I went to, but that's a false claim since Stevie came out mid tune with his guitar behind his head, but it's from the same tour.
About a year later when I heard the news, I took the day off of work, went to my favorite place in the woods, and carved a guitar with wings into a picnic table. I try not to be one of those "SRV is the greatest that ever lived" mouth breather twits, but **** me runnin, that dude could play a mean ****ing guitar.
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