Peter Frampton's not the curly-haired golden boy from 1976 any more, but close your eyes and it's just like the vinyl double live album from that era.
In 1976, Peter Frampton came alive, and arena rock came of age. Prior to the mid-seventies, though the record-industry heavyweights - the Who, Elton John, the Rolling Stones - toured arenas with success, the circuit hadn't yet blossomed for most of the others. But Frampton's mega-selling double live album Frampton Comes Alive! signalled a change: Acts from Aerosmith to Z.Z. Top (and lesser-lights as well) began to fill buildings made for basketball and hockey. And Rock 'n' roll has never looked back. (Some say it hasn't looked forward either, but that's another matter.)
Frampton, who plays Massey Hall this evening, is no longer the fair-haired boy wonder of British guitar-rock. He no longer plays arenas, and his latest album, Thank You Mr. Churchill, won't dazzle the folks at Billboard. But his performances are marked by the same sense of exhilaration found on Frampton Comes Alive!, which was unique for its sense of occasion.
The crowd's reactions - singing the parenthetical line to All I Want to Be (Is by Your Side), applauding on the recognition of Lines on My Face and hooting to the talk-box shenanigans of Do You Feel Like We Do - are as almost as memorable as the music. Listening to it all on vinyl, it was as if you were there.
The experience will no doubt be revisited tonight at Massey Hall. There, Frampton will come alive, but he will hardly be the only one.
Thursday, 8 p.m. $59.50 to $69.50. 178 Victoria St., 416-872-4255.