"B.B. King at the 1996
Mill City Music Festival"
Labor Day, September 2nd, 1996
Written by Jim Kerekes
It was a very warm and humid evening. The festival had 125 bands playing on 7 stages over 3 days. An area of about 8 city blocks was closed to traffic in downtown Minnneapolis to host the Mill City Music Festival. B.B.'s summer blues fest tour played on Stage 6, this was one of the 4 "pay" stages. The stage was setup inside of a large big-top tent on a parking lot across from the Target Center (home of the Minnesota Timberwolves NBA team).
The 1996 Blues Fest tour lineup was; Kenny Wayne Shepard, Delbert McClinton, The Neville Brothers and, of course, B.B. King. We got to the festival kind of late, but managed to see the last 4 songs by the Neville brothers. After their set, we worked our way as close to the stage as we could. We stopped about 30 feet from the stage, the mass of people would not allow us any more progress, we had acheived maximum density. It was very warm that evening, the air did not flow very well thru the tent, and it was rather humid. There was no seating, it was standing room only, I would estimate the tent held about 2500 people
B.B.'s band came on stage at 9:00, right on schedule. After the band had played their first two customary warmup tunes, B.B. made his entrance. I've seen him play about 8 times now, and he never does the same set twice. Noticably missing from this year's set was "How Blue Can You Get?", a live concert staple. However, this did not dull B.B.'s performance one bit. I did remember him singing his some of his favorite live lyrics, such as, "Hey Everybody ... Tell Everybody ... B.B. King's in Town!" About midway thru the show, the horn section exited the stage, and a chair was brought out for B.B. I have noticed that this has been a common occurance for the last 5 years or so. B.B. proceeded to play a lot of his old material, it was great.
After a few tunes, he told a story about his visit to our troups in Bosnia this summer. He and the band had left a Military base in Germany to head for Bosnia, and were flying over the Swiss Alps in a large Military transport. He recalled going up to the cockpit and looking out over the beautiful snow covered mountain tops. B.B. said that when he was taking flying lessons, the instructor always taught him to look for a place to land in case of trouble. He recalled hoping that this jet would fly on without any problems, because there was no place to set that big old bird down. After returning from the cockpit, he took a nap, and awoke to see the band peering out of the little windows on the plane. They were now flying over Bosnia, and whe he asked them what they were looking for, the reply was "Missles"!!! B.B. also stressed the importance of writing to our country's service men and women stationed in Bosnia, as he put it, "They would love to hear from their friends and family back home".
As he was finishing his stories, we noticed an amp being brought out onto the stage. B.B. then announced that he had a special treat for us. He brought out Kenny Wayne Shepard to play a few tunes. He and Kenny played a couple of songs, and then the horn section returned for the final tunes of the set. After the lights came on, we worked our way to the front of the stage. We then showed our passes and were directed to wait for B.B. at his tour bus. There were quite a few others waiting to see him too, so when he was finally ready, we all took turns going on the bus to meet with him. As usual, B.B. was very polite and took the time to speak with every one personally. My only regret was that I didn't have much time to meet with him that night, as about 40 or so people were lined up to get on the bus. I gave B.B. printed copies of the Log Book Entries for the Month of August. We had also prepared a custom Birthday card for him, and a birthday present, which was a Lucille Screen Saver for his laptop PC. He signed my back stage pass and thanked me for the materials. We then took a couple of pictures, and as you can see by my expression, I was very happy - to say the least! I hope to be able to personally meet with him again soon.