Peter Frampton does it again
By ISAAC TAYLOR
Reporter Columnist
That’s what rock legend Peter Frampton told a sold-out crowd during his two-and-a-half-hour marathon concert last Friday night at the Payne and Mencias Palladium in Carmel.
Yes, you read that correctly. The soon-to-be 75-year-old guitarist, singer, and songwriter rocked the Palladium until nearly 11 o’clock without an intermission.
By the way, he also happens to have inclusion body myositis, an inflammatory muscle-wasting disease. No big deal – to him, it’s now just a part of life.
And what a life he’s led. That was clear from the beginning of last Friday’s show. Before the band began, a video of photographs from his childhood throughout his career flashed on the stage screen. Cooler still were the numerous Super8 film clips giving the audience a remastered look at a young Frampton and friends in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.
I love old photographs, but I’ve always been taken by home movies for all the obvious reasons. Seeing a teenage or 20-something Peter Frampton jumping on the beds of a hotel room with bandmates, enjoying a picnic with a girl, leaning out over the railing of a boat in the waters around Manhattan with the unfinished Twin Towers in the background … moments in time which would have been lost forever. Movie magic, indeed.
I won’t opine on how incredible he still sounds – both his voice and his playing – or what it felt like seeing an actual living legend and his terrific band maybe 100 feet from me. His talent and my feelings about witnessing that talent should be obvious, and Frampton fans already know.
I will, however, thank the Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts for providing a professional yet welcoming atmosphere in which to enjoy what is likely a once-in-a-lifetime performance.
Regarding the headline above, that’s what Frampton said after playing a track written by him and his son Julian for a new album coming out in January 2026 – exactly 50 years after the wildly successful Frampton Comes Alive! rocketed Peter to the stars.
Congratulations, Mr. Frampton, and thank you for continuing to share your talent with all of us.
You can catch these occasional columns discussing bits and pieces of Isaac Taylor’s favorite music in the pages of The Reporter.
I was there also and remembering wearing the vinyl out and blowing the speakers my freshman year of college when the live album came out I also was blown away by his performance and his message at the end resonated with everyone bravo Peter Frampton