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Experience Hendrix tour vocalist Dylan Triplett got the rhetorical question of the night award when he asked the crowd Saturday night, March 22, at Detroit’s Fox Theatre if “y’all ready to hear some more Hendrix?”
The tribute tour, back at the Fox for the first time in six years, is predicated on the idea that you can never have too much of Jimi Hendrix’s music, in a single sitting — or ever. And the two-and-a-half hour all-star extravaganza proved that to be true as a corps of 14 musicians reenacted what Hendrix referred to as “electric church,” threading the needle between slavish reverence and original expression over the course of 20 songs from his catalog — mostly from the three albums he released with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, including some welcome deep tracks.
It was a leaner version of Experience Hendrix in previous years, notably shorter than other editions. That was to the show’s benefit, however, as the abundance of musical punches landed harder and with more impact, leaving the Fox crowd — which braved some genuine crosstown traffic on a busy night around Foxtown — more energized than drained while keeping the caliber of the music spiraling upwards throughout the night.
You could needle-drop just about anywhere in the concert and find a highlight from the seven featured guitar heroes– who all played with photos and footage of Hendrix hovering behind them all night. It began with some hometown touches, as Hendrix’s sister Janie Hendrix, president and CEO of Experience Hendrix LLC, presented a tour-autographed guitar to the lock Dick Wagner Remember the Child Memorial Fund and Michigan-born Kenny Olson joined Indigenous’ Mato Nanji and Hendrix’s cousin Henri Brown for a rendition of “Fire” that more than lived up to its title.
From there the show featured Experience Hendrix staples (Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Eric Johnson and Ally Venable) along with newcomers. Two of those — a cowboy hat-wearing Marcus King and Devon Allman — teamed up for ferocious jams on “Manic Depression” and “Are You Experienced?,” going toe to toe with their guitars and, on their former, their voices. King also tore it up on “Stone Free,” “Crosstown Traffic” and “Hey Joe,” while Allman came on and off stage throughout the night, also joining Venable and Nanji for “Little Wing” and “Red House.”
Venable, flashy in a white-and-silver mini-dress and knee-high red boots, worked with Nanji on a powerhouse rendition of Howlin’ Wolf’s Killing Floor, while Johnson dug deep for “Power of Soul” and “One Rainy Wish” to precede his epic renditions of “Burning of the Midnight Lamp” and “Spanish Castle Magic.” Nanji, meanwhile, was the night’s MVP, playing on seven songs and getting his own showcase during onetime Hendrix bandmate Buddy Miles’ “Them Changes.”
Shepherd, meanwhile, returned to his role of nominal tour headliner with incendiary performances — sung by Noah Hunt — of Earl King’s “Come On,” the Experience’s “Gypsy Eyes” and “I Don’t Live Today” and his 20-plus-minute discourse of “Voodoo Chile” and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” tearing into one seemingly unstoppable solo after the others.
It was a welcome return and in some ways a rebirth for Experience Hendrix as a live stage concept. Less was indeed more this time around, and the combination of generational music and stellar performances certainly left the Fox fans hoping it won’t be another six years before the tour rolls through again.
