Peter Frampton comes alive at Greek Theatre

Early 2019 guitar legend and current Rock N Roll Hall of Fame nominee Peter Frampton publicly stated he was diagnosed with inclusion body myositis and that he would have a farewell tour. Part of the ticket sales of each show were donated to The Peter Frampton Myositis Research Fund.

Prior to that Frampton had two tours with Steve Miller. On October 5th, 2019 Frampton played what was thought to be his final Los Angeles show at the KIA Forum with his son Julian and Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening as the openers. In September of 2019, Frampton’s dream of playing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” with Eric Clapton finally came true at the Crossroads Festival in Dallas, TX. Also that year it was Frampton’s 70th birthday. The farewell tour concluded in November of 2019. With the Covid-19 Pandemic Frampton did not tour again until November of 2022. Frampton would return to touring again with the Never Say Never Tour beginning in June 2023 and ending in November of 2023. Frampton added more dates for 2024 of the Never Say Never Tour which started March 3rd. Frampton returned to the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, CA for his first show there since 2018. Previously Frampton played there his Guitar Circus tour in 2013 which included B.B. King and Sonny Landreth and also played with Yes there in 2010.

Frampton brought out his famous black Gibson Les Paul from his “Frampton Comes Alive” album right at the start of the show, which in the past has told the history of it from being used with Humble Pie to solo albums to being in a plane crash and the guitar being returned to him during his 35th anniversary tour of Frampton Comes Alive. For this tour Frampton also brought out John Siomos’s drumset from that very album. In 2019 Frampton told the tale of how he wanted Siomos to have a Ludwig drum set with the large bass drum like John Bonham. Siomos passed away in 2004 and at some point before the 2019 tour the drums resurfaced on Ebay.

Frampton opened up with “Golden Goose,” and the third song was his biggest hit with Humble Pie “Shine On” and by song six played one of his biggest solo hits “Show Me the Way. For this tour Frampton played 19 songs opposed to 16 on the farewell tour. Frampton’s son Julian joined in for David Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel.”

Two songs before the encore, Frampton played Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” which he recorded with Pearl Jam/ Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron and Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready on his 2006 album Fingerprints which was all instrumental and had a number of duets. With Chris Cornell’s passing in 2017, Frampton continued to play it, but as a tribute to Cornell and included its famous talkbox part.

Before the start of the show there was heavy rain and by the time Frampton took the stage around 8:15 the rain became light and after a few songs, the rain ended. It’s quite remarkable Frampton and his band played over 2.5 hours in the cold weather and although Frampton plays seated now, his guitar playing and singing abilities haven’t changed a bit.

The last two songs before the encore were “(I’ll Give You) Money” and “Do You Feel Like We Do” with its legendary talk box solo and Frampton extends it leaving the audience laughing.

The encore was Ida Cox’s “Four Day Creep,” Nickolas Ashfords “ I Don’t Need No Doctor,” and The Beatles “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”