Foghat - Atlanta 1998

Foghat Lakewood Amphitheatre Atlanta, GA – June 21, 1998 This was a free concert promoted by Atlanta’s WZGC-FM radio station headlined by The Doobie Brothers, but also featuring Foghat and The Jeff Healey Band. My former Serpentine Waltz bandmate Kevin Davidson invited me to join him and his wife Kathryn for this show, so I was happy to oblige them. (You can see them in few segments of this video.) I snuck in my Sony 8mm camcorder to video the entire show from the lawn. This was only the 2nd show I’d done with my own camcorder. In fact, I’d captured Savatage just a week a prior to this one. The original Foghat opened the show, featuring Lonesome Dave Peverett (guitar, vocals), Rod Price (guitar), Tony Stevens (bass) and Roger Earl (drums). They were promoting their latest album RETURN OF THE BOOGIE MEN, which featured many rerecorded versions of their classics. I’ve always been a Foghat fan, and this was the only time I’d seen the original lineup together. I’d seen another incarnation of Foghat with just Lonesome Dave in the early 90s. Unbeknownst to me, this would be one of my last chances to see the original Foghat, as Dave died of complications from kidney cancer on February 7, 2000 at age 56 Sadly, Foghat’s set was immediately marred by technical problems. Not too long after they launched into their first song, the P.A. completely cut out. Although you could still hear them playing on stage, there was no vocals (and the band was relatively low in volume). After aborting “I Just Want to Make Love to You” as the opener, they also tried in vain to play “Fool for the City”, but there were still problems. It took about 5 to 10 minutes for the crew to sort these issues out before they restarted the show with “Fool For the City”. It seemed like a relatively short set for them, although many of the songs they chose were extended for longer jams. There was too much light for the venue to turn on the video screens, so I had to struggle with shooting a fairly long distance from the lawn area to the stage. It turned out okay, but I was never considered this video one of my better ones due to the occasional shakiness. I’ve applied some video stabilization to this copy straight from my 8mm master in hopes of making it a bit more watchable. (The audio is in Monaural, which is all my camcorder had.) I wound up even sending a copy to Lonesome Dave’s son afterwards. I just wanted to get this one out there, instead of just sitting on my shelves for another few decades. Hope someone out there enjoys this! (I also captured the Doobie Brothers, which is much better, and Jeff Healey.) Set List: Video Intro – 00:00:00 I Just Want to Make Love to You [take 1-aborted] – 00:00:14 Intermission to fix P.A. Issues – 00:03:41 Fool For the City [take 1-aborted] – 00:05:53 Fool For the City [take 2] – 00:08:29 Drivin’ Wheel – 00:13:52 Sweet Home Chicago – 00:21:00 I Just Want to Make Love to You [take 2] – 00:30:07