Row K, Seats
60-61 (right side)
The first
third of Tuesday night’s show by John Fogerty and his five bandmates (including
son Shane Fogerty on guitar and the ubiquitous Kenny Aronoff on drums) was
good. The remainder of the show was superb.
The turning
point was an extended version of “Keep On Chooglin’”, an album track from Bayou Country, the first of three LPs
that Creedence released during 1969. They followed with a well-chosen mix of
hit singles (such as “Lodi” and “Green River”), extended workouts (“Ramble
Tamble” and of course “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”), and covers of early
rock classics (“Good Golly Miss Molly” and shortened versions of “Whole Lotta
Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu”, both of
which featured Fogerty on piano). I was particularly impressed by their
versions of a couple of singles that I had never counted among my favorites: “Hey
Tonight” and “Long as I Can See the Light.”
The band
kicked it into overdrive near the end, winding up with “Down on the Corner”, “Centerfield”
(which drew the biggest crowd reaction of the night), an extended version of “The
Old Man Down the Road”, and “Fortunate Son”. The enthusiastic crowd was
rewarded with two classic encores: “Bad Moon Rising” and “Proud Mary”. (For
whatever it’s worth, by my count just 10 of the 27 songs actually came from the
year 1969, not that I’m complaining.)
The show
started at 8:20 and ran just over two hours. In lieu of an opening act, the evening
started with a 15-minute video focusing on the tour’s title year, with photos,
concert footage, and some reminiscing from Fogerty. It wasn’t bad (and no doubt
was particularly useful for those in the audience who didn’t live through it),
but it tended to ramble at times, and for me ran at least 5 minutes too long.
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