The Guess Who Concert

Well on the night Madonna was turning off the Air Conditioner at the Bell Centre in Montreal, June 21st, I was sitting in a nice little Theatre St.Denis, watching a band I had last seen 32 years ago.  Scary!  Yes.

The sound acoustics very nice in Theatre St.Denis - The evening was kicked off by a Solo performance from Serena Ryder.  A young aspiring artist who can really handle herself on stage with her guitar.  A few interesting songs of her own were performed as well as a rendition of Neil Young’s Heart of Gold which I must say was excellent.

The proof was there, people much older than me listening to 70’s rock tunes like American Woman, hunched over suffering from Osteoporosis.  Still, I represented the average age I would say.

As they quietly took their position on stage, footage was playing showing much younger eras.  Probably going back to Chad Allan and the Expressions.

It was like attending two concerts, The Guess Who (Burton Cummings) and BTO (Bachman Turner OverDrive)  Excellent.  I was there along with 3 other friends, everyone was impressed.  The audience bopping and dancing, responding to Randy Bachman who can still really get the crowd going.  Burton Cummings acting as a master of ceremonies…kept the band on cue.

As they hammered out differences from the period of turbulence the band went through, Burton Cummings was pleased to be participating in BTO’s numbers only stepping away 2 or 3 times during numbers done by Randy Bachman.  Randy Bachman however, never stepped away from the stage.  Sitting through 3 encores with Taking Care of Business as finale.

A very pleasant format to watch either gentlemen talk about how they both use to write half songs and get together to complement one another.  Where as Randy Bachman has taken to extreme physical changes over the years, with a few touch ups and a hair job, Burton Cummings has remained rather unscarred by time.  Still a master on the keyboard or piano.

A partial list of songs performed would include:

• American Woman
  Laughing
  Albert Flasher
  No Sugar Tonight/ New Mother Nature
  Break It To Them Gently
  Undun
  Timeless Love
  Hey You
  Tribute to Buddy Holly
  Hand Me Down World
• Fine State of Affairs
• My Own Way To Rock
  Clap For The Wolfman
  Star Baby
  Lookin Out For #1
  Prairie Town
  You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet
  Let It Ride
  These Eyes
  No Time
  (Encores)
  Share The Land
  Takin’ Care of Business.

Ouups!  Did I forget to say this is Canadian homegrown?

Great show!  Would be back there tomorrow.