I actually saw Them in 1966, on their last U.S. tour with Van Morrison in the group. They were pretty darn great, tough R & B. What The Stones were unsuccessfully trying to sound like. Also that year The Coasters, who had a crackerjack 3-piece white band (they sounded as good as Booker T & The MG’s, high praise in my world). Not so good imo were the doors (lower case their choice, ala e.e. cummings), whom I saw in ’68.
I somehow never saw Moby Grape live, damnit. I also missed Merle Haggard, but have a good friend who saw a mid-70’s show of his at The Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California. We knew the guy doing the sound that night (he was our band’s sound guy in ’71-2), who asked my friend if he wanted to meet Merle. He took him onto Merle’s tour bus, were they found Merle’s band sitting around the kitchenette table, sharing the huge pile of blow in it’s center. ;-)
