Opening for The J. Geils Band at Boston Garden
It’s difficult to pinpoint single events as being “the greatest,” having had the most impact or being the most memorable in general, but I’ve been luckier than most in the scope of my career, with an abundance of unforgettable times and professional milestones. While few of those rise to the occasion of seminal, one could easily be called defining: the time my band played at three sold-out shows at Boston Garden in support of one of Boston’s most identifiable and iconic musical acts, the mighty J. Geils Band. With all of the world tours, hit records, accolades and more, that was an experience like no other.
After what became their biggest record, Freeze Frame, was released in October 1981, the Geils band was on a rapid road to reaching their apex. By the time the album hit #1 in the Billboard 200 in February 1982, the perennial favorites of the Boston music scene were absolutely red hot nationwide, which meant muti-platinum sales and sold-out shows across the country, so Geils was poised to cash in on years of touring and hard work. But I couldn’t possibly have predicted how their particular good fortune would also become mine.
My band, Jon Butcher Axis, was having its own kind of professional epiphany in the early ‘80s. For Derek Blevins, Chris Martin and myself, all the hard work we’d put in to honing our sound finally began to come together in obvious ways. The shows became bigger and wilder, Boston’s WBCN got behind one of our songs by putting it in regular rotation and it began to feel like we were going places. There was an almost palpable buzz around JBA, so we could sense that something was coming, like we were at the beginning of a new chapter.
In those days, the Geils band would occasionally bring an up-and-coming local group as an opener and somehow we were chosen. The week after Christmas in 1981, we got the nod to open up for them on a short run of dates throughout the Northeast, backing them in Providence, Hartford, New Haven and Portland. I’m not sure who initiated the call but I remember that Seth Justman, their keyboard player, had expressed some interest in producing the band and that their management was eyeing us as well.
As Freeze Frame was climbing to the top of the charts just after New Year’s in 1982, we were again invited as opening act (but this time all over the US) and the general feeling was that Justman and management were responsible for making it happen. By this time, the two bands and road crews were totally in sync and ready to hit the ground running, but this was JBA’s first national tour and first exposure to what big-time success might look like. Having the four Northeast warm-up dates under our belt, though, we felt like there wasn’t any place where we couldn’t play a great show and nothing we couldn’t do when it came to performing. And as a band without record deal, a booking agent or any clout at all, we just couldn’t believe our good fortune.
The first show was at Cobo Arena in Detroit on January 28 and I was scared knobless. We were set to go on at 7:15 pm exactly and Peter Wolf came into our dressing room prior to offer some advice: “hit ’em hard, hit ’em fast and don’t falter,” he said. We took that advice to heart and by the end of that show we knew that this was going to rank high as one of the most electrifying experiences of our lives. And it was – until the first of the Boston Garden shows on February 22.
There are no words, no way to communicate the sensory overload of being in the middle of the Garden about to take the stage in front of some 15,000 loyal J. Geils fans. Would they kill us? Would they kill me? Visions of being run out of town on a rail crossed my mind, and in the moments right before the house lights went down I entertained thoughts of simply running away, escaping to an island and maybe skippering a small fishing boat for tourists. This thought lasted about 10 seconds before the house lights dimmed and the announcement was made: “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Boston’s own, Jon Butcher Axis!”
Suffice to say that much of that JBA set is still a blur for me, but the show was an unqualified success and by the end of the third night at Garden we’d set our sights on achieving major success. By the end of the Freeze Frame tour, JBA had secured a record contract, several extended tours, a publishing deal and all the rest. Our rock ‘n’ roll fantasies had come to life in a way few others ever experience by way of our opening for one of the greatest live bands of all time. Thanks to Seth, Peter, Danny, Stephen, Magic Dick and J., we were able to not only play one of the coolest gigs there’s ever been on three successive nights (at one of the coolest venues there’s ever been), but we catapulted into the national spotlight as a result and were able to begin a recording career that continues to this day.
(by Jon Butcher)
Jon Butcher was the guitarist, singer and songwriter for Jon Butcher Axis, Barefoot Servants and presently with Farren Butcher Inc. and has recorded several solo albums since the mid-1990s. He’s the founder/owner of Los Angeles-based Electric Factory Recording Studio and Electric Factory Music, the latter of which produces scores for television programs, movies and computer games.
