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| Sammy Hagar & Bobby Weir @ the Fillmore (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Raising money for the Pediatric Cancer Program at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital has never been so much fun. Yes, this was the 8th annual 'Acoustic-4-A-Cure' benefit concert put on by Sammy Hagar and Bobby Weir, but after a 3 year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Sammy & Bobby's invited guests to San Francisco's historic Fillmore seemed to relish being back on the stage with each other -- and for one surprise performer, getting to experience it for the very first time! For this years' event, the announced guest performers included Heart's Nancy Wilson, the Stockton-turned-Nashville crooner Chris Isaak, blues legend and Berkeley-based Taj Mahal, and of course, Michael Anthony & Vic Johnson of Sammy's The Circle, and Bobby Weir's Wolf Bros., Jay Lane and Don Was. But who could the surprise guest be? Possible locals included a who's who of Bay Area music legends. Would it be Carlos Santana? Joe Satriani? Billy Joe Armstrong? Metallica's James Hetfield or Lars Ulrich? We'd have to wait and see!
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| Michael Anthony & Sammy Hagar @ the Fillmore (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
The show kicked off with a quick introduction by a member of the UCSF staff to talk about the Pediatric Cancer program and how it all came about with a simple conversation with Sammy 10 years ago. It was a nice reminder and a way to ground the event in all the good that it was meant to do. Speaking of grounded, instead of the normal setlist taped to the stage floor, I found this list of key phrases taped near center stage -- and I only assumed it was also meant to act as a grounding for the performers, and a quick cheat sheet of terms to use throughout the night.
With the introduction over, Sammy took the stage with Mike and Vic to kick things off with their electric guitars and tore through two Circle songs, "Affirmation" and "Father Time" before hitting Sammy's "Your Love is Driving Me Crazy." Acoustic this was not, but it definitely warmed-up the crowd before giving way to Nancy Wilson.
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| Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, and Vic Johnson @ the Fillmore (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Nancy kept Vic onstage with her for her first song "A Whiter Shade of Pale", but was then joined by Weir on the Heart track "Even it Up." Mid-way through the song, Michael, Sammy and Chris Isaak joined as Nancy's back-up band. An amazing rendition of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" followed with just Nancy and Michael Anthony; and to close her set, she sat down on a stool to tell a story of being on tour with Van Halen back in the '80's and a conversation she had with Eddie Van Halen after a show. He'd commented about her acoustic guitar playing and admitted that he'd never played an acoustic. So Nancy gave him her acoustic guitar and in the next morning, Eddie called her hotel room to have her listen to what he'd written overnight on her acoustic. 'Oh my god I've got this really cool thing that I want to play for you over the phone,' said Eddie. It was kinda classical, kinda rock. She noted how it was never released, but hoped that it was recorded somewhere because it was just pure genius. And after he passed, she wrote a song 'For Edward' which you can find below.
Chris Isaak was up next and I realized what a comedian he and Kenney Dale Johnson are! The duo sat on stools at center stage with Kenney acting as percussionist and sidekick! They got a few bars into their first song when Kenney stopped Chris and said "Why don't you play the good one?" And with that, Chris changed course and led off with 'Wicked Game" which everyone in the crowd knew and sang along with. After that song, Chris spoke with the crowd and mentioned how he still saw a few people with masks and completely understands how folks are still worried about Covid, and singing was a way to transmit Covid, but he wanted to reassure everyone in the audience that both he and Kenney tested negative for Covid... Positive for Gonorrhea, but he swore that at the distance they were at on stage in relation to the crowd, it would be very hard for anyone to get it off them. The crowd was in stitches and I had no idea that Chris was such a joker.
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| Kenney Dale Johnson & Chris Isaak @ the Fillmore (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
After "Only the Lonely" and "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing" with Bob Weir, it was finally time to find out who the surprise guest performer would be when Chris introduced none other than Joan Baez who graced the stage to sing "Never Ending Song of Love" with Chris. He warned the crowd that she might be a little nervous, and told Joan not to worry about the crowd and to just look out and imagine they were all naked before breaking into "Never Ending Song of Love."
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| Bobby Weir & Joan Baez @ the Fillmore (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Joan's a national treasure who gave up touring back in 2019 but still resides in the Bay Area and once the truth came out, we heard that it was Bob Weir who convinced her to make the drive up to the city to perform at the benefit -- 'because he's a doll' and that she wanted to see Taj Mahal play. Honestly, you would never have guessed that Joan hadn't performed in 4 years! She sounded great and looked at home on stage either solo or when performing with anyone else throughout the night.
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| Joan Baez @ the Fillmore (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
She played a couple of Dylan songs -- including "Seven Curses" with Bobby on backing electric guitar -- and closed her set with both Nancy and Chris doing backing vocals on "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round." It was truly amazing to see her perform at such a small venue and as part of such an amazing benefit concert.
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| Taj Majal @ the Fillmore (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Sammy came out to introduce Taj Mahal next and told a story of how when he first met Taj back in the late 70's before he'd written some of his biggest songs. He asked Taj at the time 'how do you write your songs?' To which Taj had told Sammy (as Sammy remembered it) 'I just play what I'm thinking about up in my head.' The blues man then treated the crowd to a few classics -- including a cover of "Dust my Broom" by Elmore James, and Lloyd Price's "Stagger Lee." Both Sammy and Joan joined Taj on stage to dance and sing; and Sammy noted that he'd finally danced with a girl his age!
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| Joan Baez & Sammy Hagar @ the Fillmore (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
To close out the night, Bob Weir and the Wolf Bros. took the stage and in return, the deadhead vibe took hold of the audience with the first few rows of fans against the barrier dancing and singing along with every lyric that Bob could muster.
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| Bobby Weir @ the Fillmore (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
But the icing on the cake was when all the performers came back out on stage and sang "Loose Lucy." You could instantly see how much fun everyone was having on stage including local chef Guy Fieri who came out drinking straight from one of Sammy's Santo tequila bottles and pouring shots for anyone who wanted one.
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| Guy Fieri & Sammy Hagar @ the Fillmore (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
You could see the love everyone had on stage for each other and just how much fun everyone was having. This was the 3rd time we've been lucky enough to cover the benefit (click here for 2018 and 2019's benefit recap) and there may only be two left, so let's hope Sammy & Bob can continue their 10-year partnership with UCSF and they're willing to get the band back together next spring! In the meantime, please consider donating your time or money to such a worthy cause. Thanks to everyone who was involved in bringing this event to the Fillmore and hope to see you again next year!
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| Joan Baez & Nancy Wilson @ the Fillmore (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
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