On October 14, 1976, Jeff Beck brought his all-instrumental jazz-rock attack to the Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse, fronting the Jan Hammer Group on a bill that also featured REO Speedwagon. Beck was riding the back-to-back triumphs of Blow by Blow and Wired, and the Syracuse date fell on the fall leg of the Beck–Hammer tour that yielded the 1977 gold album Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live. REO Speedwagon, still four years from the Hi Infidelity breakthrough, worked the same stage with road-tested songs including “Ridin’ the Storm Out” and “(I Believe) Our Time Is Gonna Come.” Fifty years later, the night stands as a snapshot of a guitar hero at his most adventurous and a Midwestern band still grinding its way toward the top.
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