Peter Frampton performs at the Masonic in San Francisco on Aug. 15, 2023. Courtesy Adam Charles Papay.

SAN FRANCISCO — Peter Frampton has had a connection with San Francisco long before he recorded most of his best-selling album Frampton Comes Alive! here. Going all the way back to his days in Humble Pie and friendship with the late Bill Graham, the city has boosted his career and longevity. That’s why Tuesday’s concert at the Masonic, if it really was his last here, carried extra poignancy.

Frampton, now 73, had already said his goodbyes in 2019 when he closed what was to be his final U.S. tour at the venue formerly called the Concord Pavilion in the East Bay. The legendary ’70s guitarist has inclusion-body myositis, a muscle condition that is, among other things, slowly taking away his ability to play. But earlier this year, he’d decided he still has some gas in the tank and quickly put the Never Say Never Tour together.

Peter Frampton performs at the Masonic in San Francisco on Aug. 15, 2023. Courtesy Adam Charles Papay.

He still hasn’t said “never,” so who knows what the future holds? Tuesday’s show had a key difference from his last trek through the Bay Area: Peter Frampton and his band were all seated. Frampton needed a cane to walk onto the stage and take a seat in a padded swivel chair. Performing orchestra-style as a whole didn’t take away much from the show. Frampton’s hands weren’t noticeably slower, and the speed at which he worked the fretboard on songs like “I Got My Eyes on You,” off 1973’s Frampton’s Camel and heavier rocker “(I’ll Give You) Money,” from 1975’s Frampton, would still blow away many of today’s guitar icons.

The latter song as before included a duel with guitarist Adam Lester that began sinuously but roughly 10 minutes later turned cacophonous.

Frampton’s singing voice was also strong, especially on the big songs like “Show Me the Way,” “Baby, I Love Your Way” and main set closer “Do You Feel Like We Do.” Many in the older-leaning crowd made it out off their seats to sing along and cheered loudly for each one.

“I love you guys, you know that. This is a very special evening for me and the band; to be back to where it started,” Frampton said following the second song of the evening, Humble Pie’s “Shine On.”

He was in great spirits, sharing stories and anecdotes (when the show began with a photo montage of his music-playing career from childhood, to his start in The Herd and all the way through his stadium-rocking days, you knew what to expect). Frampton dedicated “Lines on My Face,” which he described as one of his favorite Peter Frampton songs, to his good friend and bassist John Regan, who passed away earlier this year, as well as keyboardist Bob Mayo. The song began downtempo but by the end Frampton was leaning backward in his swivel chair and wailing away at a red Gibson guitar.

Frampton also talked about All Blues, the first of two blues albums he recorded a few years ago, which spent 15 weeks atop the Billboard Blues Chart. Then he made a trumpet sound, figuratively tooting his own horn.

Frampton also name-checked music and sports photographer Michael Zagaris, his first friend in the Bay Area (in 1969), with whom he’d hiked to the top of Mount Tamalpais and got high. Sitting in the front of the room, Zagaris turned to another attendee and added that the hike took place the day after Altamont Speedway Free Festival.

Peter Frampton performs at the Masonic in San Francisco on Aug. 15, 2023. Courtesy Nick Buckmaster.

The man whose high water mark was a live album (1976’s Frampton Comes Alive!, from which he played numerous songs) also joked that all the people in the building were being recorded on their own track so that he could later tell what people were saying about him.

He was close enough to the audience to interact with attendees one on one.

“I think we’ll have to continue this another time,” he told one fan whose comments went on a bit too long.

Many of the songs featured mid-tempo arrangements that gave Frampton room to solo over them, such as opener “Lying,” bluesy “Can’t Take That Away” and roughly 10-minute jazzy jam “All I Wanna Be (Is by Your Side),” which had several movements and builds.

Other highlights included Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia (On My Mind)”—which he dedicated to the writer as well as Ray Charles—and a mostly instrumental, groove-heavy cover of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun.” On the former, Lester’s guitar playing sounded like brass instruments over which Frampton ruefully soloed. On the latter, Frampton’s guitar playing replaced the vocals, but it still felt like the instrument itself was singing. He sang the last few lines through his signature talk box. He used it on only two or three songs but got loud ovations every time he did.

The rest of the band, with bandleader and keyboardist Rob Arthur, was in lockstep with him the entire night. After chatting some more, Frampton and co. finished off the show with three more songs, concluding with his rendition of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.