On Monday night Janis, Char, Buzzard and I went to the
George Thorogood and The Destroyers concert at the
River Cree Resort and Casino in Enoch, Alberta. This venue is just in the outskirts of Edmonton. Ya, yet another Monday night concert, damn! I really had no intention of seeing George again, as I have seen him seven times before, but the three people I went with had never seen him, so I said, ya count me in. Hell it had been a while since I have seen Thorogood play a venue where you could actually get up and dance and drink. The last two times I have seen him was at the Jubilee Auditorium which is a soft seat theatre venue not the best place to see someone like George. And George always puts on a good show, and just maybe he would pull out an acoustic guitar and play a few songs, after all his 2017 album release
Party Of One was an acoustic album. But as like every time I have seen him, that didn't happen. I guess when your tour is named
Rock Party, there is going to be no solo acoustic stuff, too bad!
There was no opening act for this show, so George and his long time band The Destroyers hit the stage right at 8 o'clock as advertised on the tickets. What did surprise me this time around was that he opened with a song called "
Ain't Coming Home Tonight" a new song that was written by his guitar player
Jim Suhler and was released as a limited edition
Record Store Day 7 inch single, the A side of this single is a cover song called "
Shot Down" originally done by garage rockers
The Sonics, he also did this song on this night. Which was very surprising, as George has been playing the same songs forever live. So kind of a nice surprise to hear them two.
Of course you got all the songs one would expect at a
Thorogood show, "
Who Do You Love", "
One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer", "
Night Time", "
Gear Jammer", "
I Drink Alone". "
Bad To The Bone" you get the idea, all the hits he has been playing for thirty plus years, some of them 40 years. That don't seem to phase him or his band as George looked to be having one hell of a time, smiling, rocking, Thrusting his hips and generally just rocking the fuck out. And at 68 years old, he has still got the moves and his voice is the same old rough blues voice we have all come to know and love.
For the encore George came out on stage sporting a Canada t-shirt which got a good rise out of the sold out audience of about 1200 would be my guess. he closed out the night by playing "
Move It On Over" and "
Born To Be Bad". The crowd and myself would have loved a few more songs, but that was it, a 90 minute set and no more. As he was leaving the stage an instrumental version of the Canadian anthem played, a nice touch. All and all another fun
Thorogood show, but if you have seen him once, you have seen him a hundred times. A great party band, especially if you get to see them in a drinking venue where you can get up and shake your ass. Good times!!!
George Thorogood at the
River Cree Casino.
