Thanks to my Sweetie Janis, she and I went to see Canadian legends The Guess Who at Rogers Place. Janis won tickets from local radio station 95.7 CRUZ FM, and I was the lucky one that got to go with her. I would have bought tickets for this show as I have always wanted to see The Guess Who live. Added bonus for this show was Don Felder a former member of The Eagles opening.
We got to our seats in plenty of time before Don Felder but much to our surprise, Don started his set at 7:24, tickets said 7:30 start, good thing we got seated early. I can't recall the last time I saw a band or musician start their set early especially at a coliseum show. His first song of the night was one I wasn't familiar with, but after the first song he stopped as they were having technical issues. Not sure what it was as it sounded good to me but nonetheless, it took them a while to get the issue sorted out. Don went on to tell a few stories about some of the songs he wrote or co-wrote with The Eagles. After what felt like forever, he finally got back to playing. The next couple of songs were definitely familiar as he played a couple of Eagles songs, them being "One Of These Nights" and "Victim Of Love", they sounded pretty damn good and now the place was filling up, an older crowd for sure and people were singing along to these classic songs. Other Eagles songs played were "Heartache Tonight", "Life In The Fast Lane" a song I have always loved but man he butchered it, it did not sound good at all. He closed out his set with "Hotel California". I was really hoping to hear his song "Heavy Metal (Take A Ride)" from the Heavy Metal Soundtrack but it didn't get played. When he was doing all the talking after the first song when they had the technical issues he had told the story about doing this song for the movie, and mentioned he would play it. But because of the issues his set was shortened therefore it was never played which was too bad. All and all a decent set.
Headliner of the night was Canadian legends The Guess Who, not all original members as that has been an ongoing issue for many years, but it was the two main guys, Winnipeg natives Burton Cummings on vocals, guitar, keyboard, flute and Randy Bachman on guitar and vocals. The tour dubbed Takin' It Back after all the issues of getting the name back to the rightful owners, it had been 23 years since Randy and Burton have toured under the name The Guess Who. I wasn't sure what to expect as I had never seen the two of them perform together but I was looking forward to it. And you know what, it was damn good. Myself and the 10,000 or so other in attendance would probably agree. Everyone I talked to that was at the show said they thought it was great as well.
The Guess Who started their set with "Runnin' Back To Saskatoon" and right away you could tell Randy and Burton still have it, Burton sounded great and Randy sitting on a stool for pretty much the whole show was sounding great on the guitar and vocals. The Guess Who have so many songs that are classic AM radio hits, you couldn't avoid hearing their songs back in the day. With the older crowd that it was, everyone knew the songs and words to these Canadian classics. It was one hit after another "These Eyes", "Hand Me Down World", "Albert Flasher" and the first Bachman Turner Overdrive song of the evening was "Let It Ride". Burton looked to be having a blast on stage, so energetic for a 78 year old man, he told some stories between songs, his voice is still very, how do you say this, almost boyish, he just has so much enthusiasm for what he does. And Randy Bachman can still rip it up on guitar and sounded great as well at 82 years old.
Other songs played were "Undun", "Clap For The Wolfman" that song had everyone singing and clapping along, so much fun. "Guns Guns Guns" was also another one played and then another BTO song, this one being "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet". And there was no way that they were gonna get away without playing "American Woman" so of course that was played with them starting the song with a snippet of The Doors song "Roadhouse Blues" which kinda made sense as Burton was sporting a Doors t-shirt under his jean jacket. They followed up that song with "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature" after hearing them songs I was a happy man. Those two songs back to back brings back some fun memories of my teens and early 20's.
Then it was the two song encore, ending the night with another BTO songs, an absolute classic "Takin' Care Of Business". A very fun night out. Good times!!!
T-shirt front.
T-shirt back.
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