This show is not Hall Of Fame, and it is certainly not TEH GRATEST EVAR, but it beats the famed (but to my ears sluggish) From Egypt With Love shows by a good margin.
It’s a ’78, and moreover, it’s the most ’78 that ’78 ever was. Half-Step>Franklin’s opener? Check. A wobbly but fun Stagger Lee? Yup. Bobby playing slide? You betcha. Tempos jangling and skittering out-of-control? Why not?
But the NFA>GDTRFB is nuts, bursting at the seams with energy, derived from gram-sized baggies or not. Slower than expected (the NFA at least, the Goin’ Down is halfway to speed metal) and pulsing with the rocksteady beat that the rest of the show is only semi-familiar with, the second set ends with a great laid-back Around and Around featuring Bobby with an audible smirk on his face and buttoning a “y’all” to the end of very line.
Caveat Emptor is what I’m saying: this one. For the ’78 fans only: 12/12/78 at the Jai Alai Fronton in Miami.
Not a big fan of ’78 per se, but a HUGE fan of the Jai Alai Fronton in Miami, so I’ll take it!