Have to recommend this concert/tour

Saw Creedence Clearwater Revisited last night. Was one of the best concerts I've ever seen, anywhere. This group is on fire. Absolutely exceeded my expectations by a ridiculous amount.

(I know, I know, there's a huge 90-years-long controversy with J. Fogerty and legal blah blah blah, and this group isn't J. Fogerty and etc. If you get a chance to see this group, you won't need to know about any of that. You'll hear these songs done as well as it's possible to do them. Bam.)

Saw them a few years back with Elliot Easton playing guitar for them. I presume he's not with the band anymore? Or maybe he's back since that The Cars tour last year was like 6-gigs-and-out.

Not Elliot Easton. Did not catch the lead guitarist's name.

Yeah, they are good. And I know Doug and Stu played on the original recordings and kudos for them for finding a way to keep it working for them since John obviously has no interest in playing nice but I still can't help but feel that I'm seeing a glorified cover band when I watch them. There may never have been a band that was so much just about one guy as CCR was just about John Fogerty.

Seems like it would be like seeing The Four Seasons without Frankie Valli. The Imperials without Little Anthony, or worse yet, ShaNaNa without Bowzer!!!!

Queen without Freddie?

The Little Rascals without Stymie, Alfalfa or Spanky!

Well, to their credit, they call the act Creedence Clearwater REVISITED, which is more than most bands to that tour without key members.

I don't know if that's by choice or because they legally can't call themselves Creedence Clearwater Revival, but it's the right move, IMO.

Back in the 80's I opened for Tom Johnston of the Doobies. He'd left the band and was replaced by Micheal McDonald at the time. So, here's Johnston up there doing "stellar" renditions of China Gove, Listen to the Music, Rockin' Down the Highway and Long Train Runnin', really well performed, and he's playing to a crowd of maybe 750-1000 people. The Doobies at that time were headlining stadiums doing faux versions of some of those same songs.

Weird. Anyway, it's good to see him back with them.

Yep. Helps to have the name. Fogerty sells a lot of concert tickets, but if he was willing to do a CCR reunion tour they'd probably sell out stadiums. Obviously he isn't interested in the money.

Johnston's been back with the Doobies since about 1990. McDonald shows up for occassional private event gigs which gives you an idea of how much more lucrative some of those private events must be than doing a regular tour. Johnston's also been known to show up and sit in at McDonald's solo gigs occassionally.

Guess it's all good when it's all good.

This group wasn't without anything.

Sabbath without Ozzie. AC/DC without Bon. The Coasters without the Coasters.

Where there's a tawdry dollar to be made by repacking a sham semblance of the past, the desperate and out-of-date will flock to try out, I guess.

Except John Forgerty!

Hah! That's great. How about The Stylistics without Russell Thompkins, Jr's falsetto?

Except John Forgerty!

The lead vocals last night were stellar. I'd like to see John Fogerty some day, but last night was one of the best concerts I've ever heard.

The lead vocals last night were stellar. I'd like to see John Fogerty some day, but last night was one of the best concerts I've ever heard.

I'm sure they were great. I'm sure the lead singer is a dead ringer for Fogerty. Still...something off about a band missing the guy who wrote, sang, played lead guitar, arranged and produced all those songs. In fact, if all the stories I've heard are true, those guys only played exactly what Fogerty told them to play. Note for note.

The lead vocals last night were stellar. I'd like to see John Fogerty some day, but last night was one of the best concerts I've ever heard.

Just yanking your chain. I did hear them on a often played Casino Concert advert they ran here in San Diego. It was live footage and, though he didn't sound like Fogerty, yeah... he was good. Kind of a biker band version of Creedence. They sound good.

All good. Interestingly, I went into it with a lot of skepticism. We've all heard the stories of how badly John Fogerty was dealt with by his record label, by The Biz, so to speak. He has my sympathy, and I appreciate that he gave his cautionary perspective. If anything, you see from his career just How Bad It Can Get. If I do get to see him some day, and it's a likelihood, since I see hundreds of concerts, I don't plan to draw comparisons, only enjoy what's offered. To his credit, he also has his solo career songs to draw from, with some real gems in there.

Last night's performance won me over with riveting cohesion. In the first song there was something off about the bass sound, and I thought, oh, here we go. It was corrected by the second song, and they really fell to the task. From there on it was just rock solid. Lead vocals were really strident, authoritative, great pitch and timing. Lead guitar was daring and adventurous. He played the parts, with respect to the originals, and then pushed into new areas of improv when the song warranted it. This group really made the material their own, and it's always heartwarming to see rock and roll done up right.

I guess that's kind of why I wanted to get on here and talk about it-I know the tour is going all over this summer, and I'd hate to see anyone miss out on a really special concert experience due to the preconception that this isn't "IT". In my estimation, this is extra good value for your concert ticket expense, and that's not always the case these days. I've seen some pretty weak acts touring this year, and charging the big bucks to do it.

Saw Fogerty live 4-5 years ago and he was great, but I think he's getting to the age now where he can't quite sing 'em like he used to. Yeah, he got used and abused by the label but he also brought some of it on himself. To get out of his record deal with Fantasy, he agreed to give them all cut of the royalities of the record sales as part of Creedence. Probably thought at the time that those records wouldn't be still selling like they have. Part of the rift between him and Doug and Stu stems from the fact that they didn't cut such a deal and therefore make more money from those record sales than he does. At least that's Stu's side of the story.

And now Fogerty is signed with Fantasy again, so who knows what the story is anymore. My guess (and I'm just speculating here) is that one of the reasons Fogerty doesn't do a Creedence tour is he'd have to pay them more than he would sidemen and probably has never seen them as more than such anyway. I'd always hoped they'd get together again but it looks like that's probably never going to happen. Plus Tom is gone now....

I saw the original four guys in concert a few months after Woodstock and that's what I thought then too.