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Fact #157119

When:

Short story:

The Jimi Hendrix Experience play at The Center Arena, Seattle, Washington, USA, supported by Vanilla Fudge, Soft Machine and Eire Apparent. This is Jimi's first return to his home town as a star.

Full article:

Janie Hendrix (Jimi's sister) : When he came home and got off that plane in 1968 … I was six years old. I understood that he was a star because we'd heard the records on the radio and then we saw Jimi play in concert.

Al Hendrix : We were all going in the back door and, of course, the security were all around, and a lot of fans around there saw Jimi. And we were going in and the guy got this big, large door open, and some of the fans just surged forward, and Jimi says, 'You just go on in!' And the security guard said, 'Hey! No!' He was having a hard time holding them back, and ol' Jimi, he's going to let them go on in.

Janie Hendrix : I was there in the front row, and Jimi told me how nervous he was - it was the first time he and the Experience had played in front of the family. But it was all like a big dream, I had to keep pinching myself to make sure I was awake

Leon Hendrix : There were maybe eight or nine thousand there. Most of them looked like businessmen, and they didn't seem to get it. There were a lot of black people, and they weren't into that kind of show, that kind of music.

Tom Robbins (Helix magazine) : Listening to rock in the Arena is like making love in a file cabinet. It's a study in frustration.

John Hinterberger (Seattle Times) : Hendrix and his two British-born sidemen are indeed an experience and, from the sounds they made last night, it is an experience that seems likely to be shared by quite a few more listeners before the trio hangs up its amplifiers. … So loud were the instruments amplified, that the equipment kept blowing out like candles in a windstorm and the program was interrupted several times to throw in new power units.

Tom Robbins : He plays it straight - no copulating with his guitar, no shoving the mike up the drummer's arse. After all, it's a long way from Monterey and his mother is in the audience. Jimi's voice is like raspberry preserves - thick and sweet and the seeds stick in your ears - he has a very limited range and not much gradation in tone… On the guitar, Hendrix does not hold up under analysis either. For all his explosive dynamics, his chording is bulky and coarse…. Yet despite the shallowness of much of his sound, Hendrix is a hotly exciting performer.

Patrick MacDonald (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) : A truly triumphant homecoming. Jimi Hendrix, lauded in the British press as the greatest rock guitarist extant, proved it in his Arena concert last night… Not since The Rolling Stones last concert here have I heard rock music so well done. Hendrix blends lyrics and music for a total effect that is devastating.

Janie Hendrix : I remember being really worried about all the people throwing themselves at the limo. I kept thinking that we were going to run over somebody.