{"id":798236,"date":"2026-08-01T23:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T23:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/798236\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T23:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T23:14:12","slug":"review-robby-krieger-of-the-doors-wows-at-mountain-winery-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/798236\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Robby Krieger of The Doors wows at Mountain Winery concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Doors<\/a> were the ultimate L.A. band, lighting the world on fire with equally psychedelic and poetic tales spun by a magnetic lead singer with Hollywood matinee idol looks.<\/p>\n

Despite that well-cemented geographic connection, however, the band\u2019s legendary guitarist \u2014 Robby Krieger<\/a> \u2014 does have a pretty strong connection to the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to high school up here at a school in Menlo Park,\u201d the 80-year-old Krieger<\/a> told fans Friday at the Mountain Winery, referring to his time at Menlo School (which is actually in Atherton). \u201cIt was a school to get you into Stanford. Unfortunately, I didn\u2019t get into Stanford.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, not getting into The Farm turned out just fine for the young L.A. native, who would instead return to SoCal and then study at UC Santa Barbara before transferring to UCLA. He met Jim Morrison while at Westwood and that would lead to the creation of one of the Top 5 most significant rock bands in American history:<\/p>\n

The Doors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Friday night (July 31), more than 1,100 fans gathered at the gorgeous mountaintop venue in Saratoga to celebrate the legacy of that mighty band during a brilliant two-hour show delivered by Krieger<\/a> and his three-piece backing band.<\/p>\n

Following a winning half-hour set by the instrumental Santa Barbara electric-music duo Tripform, featuring Pablo Manzarek (son of the late great Ray Manzarek of The Doors<\/a>) and Norm Reed, Krieger and company took the stage and kicked things off from the Doors\u2019 very beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first song from the first album,\u201d Krieger announced.<\/p>\n

With that, the group jumped right into one of the most powerful musical opening statements of all time \u2014 \u201cBreak On Through (to the Other Side)\u201d \u2014 the hard-hitting Track 1 from The Doors\u2019 eponymous 1967 first album, which may well be the greatest debut record ever recorded.<\/p>\n

It was such a treat to see this first-tier Rock and Roll Hall of Famer \u2014 who was inducted alongside vocalist Morrison, keyboardist Manzarek and drummer John Densmore in 1993 \u2014 practice his otherworldly craft on the Bay Area stage.<\/p>\n

And it certainly doesn\u2019t happen often enough. Besides his terrific outing at 2025 BottleRock Napa Valley<\/a>, Krieger hasn\u2019t performed a Bay Area outing since a Sweetwater Music Hall gig in Mill Valley way back in 2017 \u2014 and it\u2019s been over 10 years since his last South Bay show. Instead, Krieger has just been staying local and playing in L.A., performing fairly regularly at the old Doors haunt The Whisky a Go Go.<\/p>\n

Krieger wasted little time in showing Bay Area fans what we\u2019ve been missing, filling up the early-in-the-set offerings \u201cFive to One,\u201d \u201cLove Me Two Times,\u201d \u201cTwentieth Century Fox\u201d and \u00a0\u201cLove Her Madly\u201d with astounding leads and passages. He\u2019s not a gunslinger \u2014 certainly not in the classic guitar hero sense, like a Jimmy Page or Eddie Van Halen \u2014 but his fretwork is spellbinding, drawing from blues, flamenco, jazz, classical, pop and more in ways that are strikingly original. He doesn\u2019t often get his due in conversations about rock\u2019s top guitarists, but I\u2019d take Krieger\u2019s approach \u2014 which favors new ideas and bold passages more than flashy moments and speed for speed\u2019s sake \u2014 over pretty much any other guiyarist\u2019s.<\/p>\n

And Krieger certainly doesn\u2019t get enough credit as a songwriter, which has a lot to do with the fact that the songs on the first three Doors album were credited to the band as whole. One must also factor into Morrison\u2019s massive mythology and substantial prowess as a poet, a potent combo which has overshadowed Krieger for much of his career. Yet, he was the primary architect of some of The Doors\u2019 very best numbers \u2014 including \u201cTouch Me,\u201d \u201cLove Me Two Times\u201d and \u201cLight My Fire\u201d \u2014 and co-authored many more, very much as an equal, with Morrison.<\/p>\n

The rest of Krieger\u2019s band is also topnotch and does a wonderful job reviving these Doors numbers in ways that are true to the original recordings but still manage to feel excitingly fresh. The four-piece lineup consisted of Krieger, drummer Ty Dennis, vocalist-bassist Dan Rothchild and keyboardist Ed Roth. That differed from what we saw at BottleRock, or at the regular Whisky shows, in that the bandleader\u2019s son \u2014 vocalist Waylon Krieger \u2014 wasn\u2019t in attendance. He was reportedly still down in SoCal, attending to family matters, which meant we missed hearing him split time on the mic with Rothchild at the Mountain Winery.<\/p>\n

Rothchild handled the extra load with style, delivering a softer, more-polished take on Morrison\u2019s lines and playing bass on these classics from the famously bass-less Doors. (The Doors did call upon a bassist in the studio. Yet, Manzarek would play those parts on a Fender Rhodes piano keyboard bass with his left hand in concert.)<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s hear it for Dan Rothchild,\u201d Krieger said. \u201cHis father produced nearly all our albums.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, the bassist is the son of the great Paul Rothchild, who produced the first five landmark albums from The Doors, but he wanted everyone to know that he wasn\u2019t some nepo baby and \u201cstill had to audition\u201d for the band.<\/p>\n

Dennis also was on top of his game, doing justice to those Densmore drum parts as he propelled the band ever onward.<\/p>\n

Yet, the most difficult challenge of the night, as per usual, went to Roth, who was tasked with trying to re-create and build upon the peerless work that Manzarek accomplished on a variety of keys. Also per usual, Roth \u2014 who, for my money, is the best rock keyboard player in L.A. \u2014 was definitely up for the assignment, absolutely nailing the epic intro and mesmerizing lead on \u201cRiders on the Storm\u201d and then shinning brilliantly on a nicely jammed-out \u201cTouch Me\u201d that included Krieger working in a bit of Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cSubterranean Homesick Blues.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the main set drew to a close, Krieger stepped the forefront and reminded everyone of who they\u2019d bought tickets to hear, just absolutely melting faces with a scalding psychedelic guitar solo that highlighted a 15-minute version of \u201cWhen the Music\u2019s Over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t hear that everyday,\u201d Roth said in amazement at the guitar solo\u2019s conclusion. \u201cGive it up for Robby Krieger.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group returned for a meaty encore built of two of the greatest songs, not just from The Doors\u2019 catalog, but from rock history \u2014 \u201cL.A. Woman\u201d and \u201cLet My Fire.\u201d Krieger introduced the latter \u2014 which, in concert, touched upon The Beatles\u2019 \u201cEleanor Rigby,\u201d Rodgers and Hammerstein\u2019s \u201cMy Favorite Things\u201d and more \u2014 as being the very first song he wrote for The Doors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been downhill ever since,\u201d he joked. \u201cI should have quit while I was ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

No way, Robby. We\u2019re so glad that you kept right on going. And nights like this at the Mountain Winery just underscore what an amazing gift you\u2019ve been throughout all these many decades.<\/p>\n

Robby Krieger Setlist:<\/p>\n

1. \u201cBreak On Through (to the Other Side)\u201d
2. \u201cFive to One\u201d
3. \u201cLove Me Two Times\u201d
4. \u201cTwentieth Century Fox\u201d
5. \u201cLove Her Madly\u201d
6. \u201cPeople Are Strange\u201d
7. \u201cBack Door Man\u201d
8. \u201cRiders on the Storm\u201d
9. \u201cMoonlight Drive\u201d
10. \u201cWild Child\u201d
11. \u201cThe Crystal Ship\u201d
12. \u201cTouch Me\u201d
13. \u201cRoadhouse Blues\u201d
14. \u201cWhen the Music\u2019s Over\u201d
Encore:
15. \u201cL.A. Woman\u201d
16. \u201cLight My Fire\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Doors were the ultimate L.A. band, lighting the world on fire with equally psychedelic and poetic tales…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[3805,2356,6547,88,3803,216,3,23823,17172,2156,10840,224947,248945,10843,2628],"class_list":["post-798236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-concerts","tag-entertainment","tag-keywee","tag-music","tag-news","tag-nightlife","tag-pop-music","tag-rock-music","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-saratoga","tag-social-alert","tag-south-bay","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}