Couldn't Stand the Weather Tour

Background

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble's 1983 album Texas Flood and the supporting Texas Flood Tour brought them to a new level of commercial and critical success. Consisting of three legs and 108 shows, it was the band's first tour as a full-time international act in Europe, and visited Germany for the first time. The group also visited venues throughout North America; they performed to a sold-out performance at The Palace in Hollywood and opened 29 shows for The Moody Blues. Alex Hodges, the band's agent, recalled The Moody Blues tour:

There were a lot of people who didn't want Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble to do The Moody Blues tour. This is an arena tour, an older band dating back to the sixties. But here's the common thread: a band like The Moody Blues was album-oriented rock as we knew it from radio perspective. It wasn't synthesized music or disco and may not have been Eric Clapton, but it came from the same basic music genre that we now call classic rock.

My view was they may be a little on the older side, but as far as his power trio or Stevie being able to command an audience, I just didn't have any doubt.

Double Trouble bassist Tommy Shannon described the tour as "glorious", saying, "Our record hadn't become that successful yet, but we were playing in front of coliseums full of people. We just went out and played, and it fit like a glove. The sound rang through those big coliseums like a monster. People were going crazy, and they had no idea who we were!"

Planning and itinerary

Like the previous Texas Flood Tour, the Couldn't Stand the Weather Tour started three months before Couldn't Stand the Weather was released, giving fans the opportunity to preview new songs. By the fourth North American leg, the album quickly outpaced the sales of Texas Flood and sold 50,000 copies in Canada. The first two legs of the tour, 23 shows in North America and 10 in Europe, were mostly indoor venues. While the band had briefly toured Europe during the Texas Flood Tour, they visited new areas for the Couldn't Stand the Weather Tour such as Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden.

In the middle of the tour, Vaughan found it increasingly challenging to perform guitar parts while singing at the same time. He hired Derek O'Brien as an additional guitarist, but the band's sentimental devotion to a trio prevailed. Bassist Tommy Shannon recalls: "Stevie invited Derek O'Brien and [vocalist] Angela Strehli to join us for a few weeks. It went over like a lead balloon. Stevie saw that it wasn't working, so he apologized and let them go. I think he really wanted to get Derek and Angela some recognition. He wanted to show people that there were other great musicians from Austin. He loved both of them." Roadie Byron Barr said that much to the band's dismay, Vaughan hired O'Brien as a rhythm guitarist to "take the pressure off" and "allow him to sing more", saying that it was for only three to five shows. Barr recalled that Vaughan was "real excited" about the idea, and "he wanted everyone else to be excited, but nobody was."

Carnegie Hall concert

On October 4, 1984, Double Trouble performed a sold-out benefit concert at New York City's Carnegie Hall. In celebration of Vaughan's thirtieth birthday, the show featured many special guests including the Roomful of Blues horn section, keyboardist Dr. John, Jimmie Vaughan, vocalist Angela Strehli, and drummer George Rains. The band wore custom velvet "mariachi" suits and designed a stage set of blue and gold. Vaughan originally planned to film the performance for future video release, though Columbia Records declined. Strehli recalls: "...it was supposed to be videoed and at the last minute they pulled some kind of union thing: 'Well, this show is going to run past eleven, so that means we get double time.' So they had to cancel the video part, which is just a shame."

The concert was sold-out with Vaughan's closest friends, and family in the audience; the proceeds benefited the T.J. Martell Foundation's work in leukemia and cancer research. Vaughan was extremely excited and nervous, saying: "The last time I was that nervous is when I got married, but I couldn't show that to anybody ... I calmed down about halfway through 'Voodoo Chile.' I looked over at Tommy [Shannon], and he was just sort of staring at me, I farted, and that's when I knew it was gonna be all right." An afterparty was thrown by MTV for the band, record company, and other VIPs. According to the Dallas Times Herald, it took Vaughan an hour just to walk from the bar to the table across the room where his parents were sitting; the article also said, "Stevie Ray found his father, a retired asbestos worker who hadn't taken a plane ride since the Korean War, and hugged him until they both cried." After the show, Jimmie recalled that he was worried that the crowd would have been "a little stiff", saying "[It] turned out they're just like any other beer joint."

Broadcasts, recordings, and releases

On April 15, 1984, Vaughan and Double Trouble's performance in Austin, Texas was recorded for the King Biscuit Flower Hour. A portion of Vaughan and Double Trouble's performance at the Spectrum was broadcast live on Westwood One, and released on the double CD legacy edition of Couldn't Stand the Weather in 2010; a March 6 performance at the CBS Records Convention in Hawaii was initially considered, though the recording contained technical issues that could not be fixed. Two August 1984 German shows were filmed for television specials. The August 25 show was broadcast live on Rockpalast, with a television audience at an estimated forty-one million. The August 27 show was broadcast live from Munich's Alabamahalle. Although the Carnegie Hall concert was not filmed, a live CD of the show was released in 1997. By 2000, the album sold over 500,000 copies.

Critical response

Many critics published favorable reviews about the tour; The Lakeland Ledger said that the band didn't disappoint, relying on "their music and themselves to entertain". The News & Observer wrote, "The crowd was still shouting for more when Vaughan unstrapped his guitar and said good night." Others praised the Carnegie Hall show; Stephen Holden of The New York Times acknowledged that Vaughan's talents were "handsomely displayed" and "filled with verve". The Dallas Times Herald said that "it was on the slow, bluesy stuff that the Carnegie Hall sound really helped", despite the fact that the hall's "fabled acoustics [didn't] seem to work so well for rock 'n' roll". The Age praised the Australian leg and assured readers that "none of the publicity is exaggerated". It observed that Vaughan was the "complete master of his instruments" and did it with a "minimum of fuss or flash". The Press wrote about the show in Christchurch, "There must be something about coming from the Lone Star State. The Austin, Texas guitarist turned in a virtuoso performance. ...Vaughan and the band showed they could play with a vengeance, notably in 'Love Struck Baby' and 'Pride and Joy,' both highlights of the concert."

Some critics indicated faults in the band's live mix. At a July 2 show in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the Dallas Times Herald noted that the acoustics in the room were awful, and the sound system provided was faulty. After the show, Vaughan said, "I'm sorry anybody had to see that. Those people out there deserved better." The review went on to say that "the fans jammed as close to the stage as they could get, trying to get a better look at his hands, trying to figure out where the magic was coming from". The Age said that Vaughan's voice was mixed back too far for much of it to be heard, "especially on the louder material".

Impact and legacy

Following the conclusion of the Couldn't Stand the Weather Tour, Vaughan and Double Trouble went on a month-long break from touring as a band. Vaughan took a vacation with Lenny on the island of Saint Croix in the Virgin Islands. He also spent most of the time at Cedar Creek Studios in Austin, where he co-produced and performed on Lonnie Mack's Strike Like Lightning, which was released in April 1985. The band's subsequent Japan Tour was their first and only visit to cities like Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo; the following Soul to Soul Tour resulted with the addition of keyboardist Reese Wynans, who would remain a member of the band until Vaughan's death in 1990.