Jimi Hendrix was slated to play the Minneapolis Armory on August 11, 1968, but the date was moved to November 2, 1968, at the Minneapolis Auditorium.  About 6,000 people saw the 45 minute performance.

 

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Notes from Tony Glover’s review in Metanoia:

• Cat Mother and the All-Night Newsboys opened the show [do you remember their hit?]  “They seemed to be a pretty tight group, using electric fiddle and mandolin off and on… But how many really paid any attention to them?  Turns out Hendrix was producing them.
• Hendrix, “his sidemen and his road managers are about the nicest group of people I’ve come in contact with in the music business, ever.  And that’s saying something.”
• Jonny Matthews, “underground cat at KDWB,” introduced the band.
• After the first number (“Fire”) “he says that there is amplifier trouble.  With a grin he announces, ‘We want to dedicate this number to all the narcotics agents and plainclothesmen here, you know who you are … and any other bastards who might be in the crowd.'”
• During the second number the crowd surged forward and “one chick fainted.”  The promoter wanted security to clear the stage area but the Hendrix people encouraged the surge.  It got dangerous.  After the number Matthews announced that the show would be stopped unless people returned to their seats.
• “There’s a fantastic hostility flow in the crowd near the stage”
• After “Voodoo Chile” Hendrix says, “Please give us another ssecond to get our amplifiers straight” and leaves the stage, “disgusted.”
• Next song is a 15-minute “Red House.”
• Hendrix:  “This song is dedicated to somebody’s girl friend tonight, I don’t know who yet, we’ll find out after the gig…”
• He keeps complaining about the equipment, although Glover says it sounds fine.
• Hendrix thanks the audience, says he’ll be back and play twice as long, and then launches into the “Star Spangled Banner,” which turns into “Purple Haze.”
• Glover claims that Hendrix actually sings, “‘Scuze me while I kiss this guy” and turns toward bandmate Mitch Mitchell.
• They stayed at the Ritz – after the show they watched Laurel and Hardy on TV.

 

 

Allan Holbert of the Minneapolis Tribune was not impressed!

The Jimi Hendrix show at the Minneapolis Auditorium Saturday night was billed as “an experience,” and that’s a good name for it. It was an experience, an undesirable one. For those of you who are not yet aware of this shining new talent, Jimi Hendrix could be best described as a black Elvis Presley. That is to say, he doesn’t sing too well, and he doesn’t play his white guitar too well, but he does have a lot of sex.

HE HAS long hair. He wears a pink, flowery shirt and pink pants and white shoes. He twists and moves around a lot as he sings and caresses his guitar. So his talent is really not significant and neither is that of something called [Mother] Cat and the all night newsboys, the rock band that preceded Hendrix before intermission. The things that made the Hendrix experience an experience was the behavior of the love-oriented (remember) hippie types in all their conforming nonconformist costumes who crowded and forced themselves up to the front of the stage when Hendrix came on.

THE MUSIC by Hendrix and his two white sidemen was loud but not too clear. Among his songs were “Foxy Lady” and “Are You Experienced,” which he dedicated to “all the narcotics agents and detectives and a few other bastards.” People sitting in the balcony probably had no trouble seeing Hendrix. For those sitting up front it was quite difficult because of those rude, smelly long-haired kids who pushed their way up to the stage, completely intimidating law officers and Andy Frain ushers. It was possible to see if you stood up, but Jimi Hendrix isn’t worth standing up for.

From Owen Husney:

My friend and I spent the night hanging with Jimi after the show that night. He played the Minneapolis Auditorium and stayed at the old Sheraton Ritz downtown. I’ll never forget that evening..just the three of us talking music and watching Laurel and Hardy on TV (with the help of a few other things). One of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

Photos below of the band and unidentified Braniff International stewardesses at the airport are from Robb Henry, who got them from a collector in New Zealand.