James Gang - Allen Theater, Cleveland, OH, 2-24-2001

Here's a concert by the James Gang, Joe Walsh's band in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It's from a rare reunion in 2001.

I recently came across an audience bootleg recording of the James Gang performing at the Fillmore West in 1970. I thought, "great, with the latest improvements in audio editing technology, I can upgrade that into something worth listening." But the sound quality was too poor to be redeemable. However, I also noticed a soundboard concert from 2001. It was better in every way than the 1970 recording, including being much longer. The only problem was the date. But I figure, what the hell, it's too bad we can't get a concert recording like this of the band in their prime, but at least we got one. (Plus, there is a good official live album, "James Gang Live in Concert," from 1971.)

Compared to most bands from their era, there haven't been that many James Gang reunions. Probably that's because the leader of the band, Joe Walsh, had a very successful solo career, as well as a career with the Eagles. The two other band members, Jim Fox and Dale Peters, kept the James Gang going through most of the 1970s, including having a few notable years with Tommy Bolin on lead guitar. However, they broke up the band by the end of the 1970s. 

The classic line-up of Walsh, Fox, and Peters first reunited in 1991, playing three songs at an encore of a Joe Walsh concert. They played a few songs again in 1996 and 1998. But their very first full song together since 1971 was this one. They played a few songs at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland on February 22, 2001. Then this concert happened two days later, also in Cleveland. They did one more concert at the same venue one day later. But that was the extent of their 2001 reunion.

They got together to play two concerts in 2005. Then there was a short tour in 2006, with about 17 concerts. After that, it was a long time until they played again. They played three times in 2022. There haven't been any reunions since, and there may not be, given how all of them are in their late 70s as I write this in 2026. I haven't been able to find any recordings with soundboard level quality from their 2006 tour or any other reunions. So we're lucky at least we have this one.

The vocals were pretty low in the mix. So I used the MVSEP program to boost them relative to the instruments. Also, the cheering at the ends of songs was pretty quiet. But there was enough there that I was usually able to increase the volume of those parts to make it sound like a more reasonable amount of cheering. 

This album is an hour and 14 minutes long. 

01 Walk Away (James Gang)
02 Midnight Man (James Gang)
03 Take a Look Around (James Gang)
04 Ashetton Park [Instrumental] (James Gang)
05 The Bomber (James Gang)
06 talk (James Gang)
07 talk (James Gang)
08 Garden Gate (James Gang)
09 talk (James Gang)
10 Collage (James Gang)
11 Ashes, the Rain and I (James Gang)
12 talk (James Gang)
13 Tend the Garden (James Gang)
14 Stop (James Gang)
15 Personal Manager (James Gang)
16 Lost Woman (James Gang)
17 Funk No. 49 (James Gang)
18 Rocky Mountain Way (James Gang)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/7GXQ4fJ4

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/iRevOuiegW4LfJ3/file

I couldn't find any good photos from the band's brief 2001 reunion. So this comes from the time of their next reunion, in 2006. Specifically, it's from back stage at a concert at the Northfork Theatre in Westbury, Connecticut, on August 12, 2006. From right to left: guitarist Joe Walsh, drummer Jim Fox, and bassist Dale Peters.

James Gang - Pop2, Taverne de l'Olympia, Paris, France, 6-20-1971

The other day, I was listening to music by James Gang, the group led by Joe Walsh in the late 1960s until 1971, and I felt the urge to hear something by them that I hadn't heard before. So I went to check the wonderful world of bootlegs. But it turns out there's very, very little that has excellent sound quality. So I gathered all of the best sounding stuff and made a live album out of it. Five out of the nine songs come from a show broadcast by the French TV show "Pop2," so that's what I'm calling this. But about half of the total length comes from other sources.

As I was saying, it's shocking how little well recorded live music exists from James Gang, unless there's some buried in record company vaults that's still locked away. (I speak of the time Joe Walsh led the band until late 1971, since in my opinion he was the heart of the band, being the lead singer, lead guitarist, and main songwriter.) There is one official live album from 1971 called "Live in Concert." But that, plus these songs here, seem to be all there is in soundboard or radio show quality. There are some audience bootlegs, including one from the Fillmore West in 1970 that purports to be a soundboard, but the sound quality isn't up to what I would expect. 

To make matters worse, although the vast majority of classic rock acts from this time period have released bonus tracks, deluxe editions, super deluxe editions, box sets, and so on, James Gang hasn't had any of that at all. As far as I can tell, there's been no archival material released whatsoever, ever since the time Walsh left the band. I highly doubt this is due to bad blood between the band members, since the original James Gang has gotten together for musical reunions every now and then. Maybe Walsh just isn't interested, since it seems to be exactly the same situation with his solo career.

Whatever the case may be, Walsh has had legit "guitar hero" skills, so it's a shame there aren't more recorded examples of him wailing on his guitar. At least we have some very good examples here. The first song is an odd one. They took "Jeff's Boogie," a relatively short instrumental by the Yardbirds, and supersized it to the point that one might argue it's actually a medley of songs. One can definitely hear parts of the songs "Over, Under, Sideways, Down" and "Think about It" (both by the Yardbirds also) and "I Feel Fine" and "Blackbird" by the Beatles. It was done in a studio for a radio station in 1968, so there's no crowd noise.

The next two songs also date to 1968. By some random chance, the band was recorded in concert with high sound quality, even though it was just before they went to record their first album. There might be more recorded, but I doubt it because I checked all the usual places and this was all I could find. Note that "White Summer" is an instrumental by the Yardbirds (who seem to have been a big influence). Only a short bit of it is played at the end of a long version of "Bluebird," originally by Buffalo Springfield.

The remaining songs except for the last one come from "Pop2," the 1971 French TV show mentioned above. Unfortunately, it seems to have only been a half-hour long show, with time further reduced for introductions and commercials. There also were a couple interview sections between songs that I haven't included. So we're left with only 20 minutes of what must have been a longer show. The beginning of the first song, "Stop," is not included, but I edited it a way so that hopefully that loss doesn't sound so jarring. I also added some applause at the end (taken from one of the other songs), since there was a quick cut at the end with no applause. Happily, all the other songs appear to be complete and include the applause. 

A video of this can be found on YouTube (though I took it from a better quality source), so you can watch it as well. As far as I can tell, it's the only surviving film footage of James Gang from the Walsh time period, except for a performance of "Walk Away" on the German TV show "Beat Club." (I didn't include that because it's quite similar to the version of "Walk Away" from the Pop2 show.)

The last song, "Tend My Garden," comes from another 1971 bootleg, recorded in the Netherlands. Weirdly, there were only two songs on this bootleg, and the other one was a version of "The Bomber" that's version similar to the version from Pop2, so I didn't include it here.

If you add it all up, there are 55 minutes of music here. If anyone knows of other live recordings by the band in this time frame that has similar sound quality, let me know and I'll add it in.

01 Jeff's Boogie [Instrumental] (James Gang)
02 I'm a Man (James Gang)
03 Bluebird - White Summer (James Gang)
04 Stop [Edit] (James Gang)
05 Walk Away (James Gang)
06 The Bomber- Closet Queen - Bolero - Cast Your Fate to the Wind (James Gang)
07 Woman (James Gang)
08 Johnny B. Goode (James Gang)
09 Tend My Garden (James Gang)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16693314/JAMSGNG1971_Pop2TvernedelOlympiaPrisFrnce__6-20-1971_atse.zip.html

The cover photo shows the band playing for the British TV show "Top of the Pops" in 1971.