One of my favorite bands, a good time, house rockin, party band. Right up until the 80s, when something changed ( fame?) and we got dreck instead of the good stuff. The last three albums, with the big hits , are just crap imo. Solo, Wolf has put out some great stuff too.
I was at the first of those four shows at the Fillmore East that weekend, and I remember three things: #1 J. Geils Band blew the roof off the place, and had the crowd going crazy. #2 Ozzy seemed petrified with stage fright to have to follow that, and played nearly their entire show with his back to the audience. #3 Sabbath tried to push through it with sheer volume. Probably the loudest concert I've ever been to. I had tinnitus for three days afterwards.
I agree with most of what OP posted but can't agree with JGB getting better with Love Stinks and Freeze Frame. To me that is when they sold out to commercialism and lost me as a hard-core fan. Perhaps Peter Wolf leaving and taking with him the heart and soul of the band was the best thing that could have happened given the path they were beginning down. My favorite albums were their live albums: Live Full House; and Blow Your Face Off - especially Chimes
You know, to me, not one strong album...but I’ve always liked them a lot. They’ve never left me cold. I’ve found a couple of Peter Wolfe’s solo albums a bit more uniformly satisfying.
When the J Geils Band opened for the Stones on the '81 tour (Seattle Kingdome) I was blown away by Wolf as a performer. Seeing Wolf and Jagger perform on the same evening was pretty fantastic!
I 100% agree. Speaking of the Who, I almost got to see J Geils open for the Who but arrived late (the QEW was backed up to Hamilton, plus I got pulled over immediately after stocking our cooler at the Beer Store).
I’m from Mass, so was fortunate to see them a few times. NOT ONCE did they ever put on a lame, half-arsed show, even as an opening act. Alas, I cannot say the same for a certain other Boston band from the same era.
I have all the their albums and remember seeing them play in the Catacombs club on Boylston St. May have been before they cut their first record. I couldn’t believe how few people were there. J. Geils was not a shredder like Eddie Van Halen and neither is Keith Richards. But they both were great fits with their bands, J was far from basic my friend. It’s not the notes you play but the ones you don’t. Best American band, though if Paul Butterfield had kept his band together he would have given Geils a run for their money: Mike Bloomfield AND Elvin Bishop! Saw them in a small club in Boston and they blew my teenage mind!
I saw Peter in a record store in Boston recently. Still looks good. Went for a CD box set of Do-Wop groups. Faster than I grab a gallon of milk. Music is still the thing.
It got played a lot on my high school bus. A lot of kids were into them. I really wasn't, I grew to appreciate them more later. But a lot of kids in MA loved them in the early 80s. Back then, if it wasn't the Who or Rush or a huge hard rock band I wasn't interested. I had no interest in rock-blues-soul, or at least not much interest. I liked Freeze Frame, Centerfold, Love Stinks, and the weird song about no anchovies, but I never bought the albums. But last summer I saw Peter Wolf at Solid Sound, and he was a highlight fer sure.
One day, somewhere around '72 or '73, I was 12 or 13, in the lobby of RDU airport, waiting with my Mom, for my Dad to return from a business trip. In walks the coolest looking group of guys I had ever seen in person. Turns out it was the J. Geils Band, because I knew what they looked like from staring at the "Morning After" album in the record store for weeks prior to that. These were not regular people, and that was obvious. Danny Klein was dressed in all pink. Pink suit, platform shoes, pink hat with a pink feather in it. J. had on blue platform boots, slick back hair, dark shades, and was reading comic books. Peter looked sick to me, but he could have been hungover. It was early in the morning. Stephen had on that long fur coat, and those platform boots, like on the cover of Bloodshot. It was quite a spectacle for a young kid to see. Five years later I saw them in concert opening for Peter Frampton. Peter was good, but the J. Geils Band was impossible to follow that night. They blew the place up.
I can't read all of that post . I would read a book Instead. Saw them in Williamsburg. Somebody threw a small battery on stage. They challenged whoever threw it to come fight the band. The coward refused to show up. 1973.
I know, and being so young, I was very impressionable. Those guys were rock and rollers, and very stylish also. Larger than life to me at the time. A different breed altogether. I don't see musicians today that have that kind of image, or maybe I'm just getting old.