This was the group’s fourth visit to the Twin Cities, and much of the personnel had changed.

Will Shapira reviewed the show for the Insider, and reported “two sizzling sets of blues and boogies.” Personnel included:

• Charlie Allen, lead singer (original member)
• Ken Utterbach, lead guitar
• Ron Woods, drums
• Frank Petricca, bass
• Brent Block, rhythm guitar (original member)

Shapira also reported two “bummers” that night. The first was a female Jesus freak who dragged everybody down with a hysterical harangue just before the second set. The second was a cop who manhanded a kid whose dancing displeased him. Charlie Allen stopped singing, told the cop to let the kid go, Charlie resumed singing, the kid resumed dancing “and everybody got it on again.” (Insider, August 29 – September 12, 1970) Mike Barich’s photo below shows the enthusiastic (and shirtless) patron in the throes of ecstasy.

According to Hundred Flowers, the group “didn’t play anything familiar – not even their new single, ‘Are You Ready.’ Their format is free and fast with lots of improvising, blues cliches, and revolutionary commentary.” Maybe the reviewer from Hundred Flowers left early, because according to Dodd Lamberton’s review, “Are You Ready,” the group’s one hit wonder, was the last song in the first show, and the only one that was worthwhile. More from Lamberton, a music student at the U at the time:

PG&E’s music is mostly fast, driving blues, which can be an exciting idiom. Rock musicians rave about the magic quality of the blues that makes it so great to listen to and to play. But if the performers do not control themselves, numbers can stretch into 20-minute studies in boredom, with drawn-out solos by each member of the band… The group was capable of much more than it produced and the crowd knew it.

The opening band was Wagner and Little, a four-piece group from Chicago that had been playing together for only a week.