The OtherArena

[jdw]

Yohe and I went to the Fogerty's show at the Nokia Theater on 10/10. Steve had seen CCR ages ago on what was probably their last tour. He can comment about the difference between that show and this.

Fogerty's hook to this tour is that he's playing a full CCR album at each show: either Cosmo's Factory or Bayou Country. Just some backstory: for year he wouldn't play the CCR stuff because of his longstanding lawsuits with the former owner of Fantasy Records. That changed in the last decade when he worked things out with the new owners, and he's been playing a ton of the stuff since.

We got Cosmo's Factory, which is longer (11 songs vs 7 and ten minutes longer in time), more hit laden (Travelin' Band / Who'll Stop The Rain, Lookin' Out My Back Door and Up Around The Bend), along with several other songs that get heavy classic radio airplay (Run Through the Jungle and I Heard It Through the Grapevine). And of course he always is going to do the hits off Bayou Country (Proud Mary backed with Born On the Bayou).

A couple of things stand out:

He plays a good, long time. We got a two hour and twenty plus minute show. That doesn't seem long by some modern standards, but CCR were pretty much the experts in the late 60s / early 70s of the 2-3 minute single. After their original hit single Suzie Q (which was truncated on single release to less than 5 minutes), every single they released was of the 2-3 minute type until their last one (Someday Never Comes). Not a lot of these are the types of songs that you can stretch out into a 7 minute epic. So to go 2:20:00+ in length, you're going to play a lot of songs. Which he did. :)

Steve's comment when he saw them back in the day was that it was about an hour show, and looking at their two live releases (from a 1970 tour and 1971 tour), you were getting about 14 songs. So... this was loaded up.

It was the first night of the tour, so Fogerty's voice was in tremendous shape. Strong, but also able to hit the high notes in a song like Rock and Roll Girls. It didn't wear as the show went on, remaining strong from start to finish. You can't get any luckier than that as a fan.

His guitar playing was strong, confident and felt as sharp as you could hope for in a live setting. There was a LOT of guitar work, which suited me just fine. :) There was a variety of guitar work by Fogerty, including him getting all Eddie Van Halen on one song... which he was likely doing before Eddie ever picked up a guitar.

The backing band was strong, especially the drummer who you can find on Wiki as having a long career as a tour musician. The bass player might have been a little higher in the mix than I cared for... though perhaps it's was just a case of "at times" and perhaps more so on our right hand side than if we had been in the middle of the theater. One of Fogerty's sons, who is right around 20, was one of the two rhythm guitarists, and it seems like John is happy to have him on tour with him. John on lead, two rhythm, bass, drummer, keyboardist and a pair of female backing singers. A good, solid professional bad.

He hasn't posted our set list, I haven't seen a good one online, not has the entire concert gone up on youtube. :) Looking at the other Cosmo's Factory set lists from Berkley, Tulsa and Austin that he's posted, ours would appear to be (with CCR/Solo along with Album source, whether it was a single and chart position):

1. Travelin' Band (CCR - Cosmo's Factory -double A single - #2)
2. Lookin' Out My Back Door (CCR - Cosmo's Factory - single - #2)
3. Ooby Dooby (CCR - Cosmo's Factory)
4. Ramble Tamble (CCR - Cosmo's Factory)
5. Run Through the Jungle (CCR - Cosmo's Factory)
6. Up Around The Bend (CCR - Cosmo's Factory - single - #4)
7. Before You Accuse Me (CCR - Cosmo's Factory)
8. My Baby Left Me (CCR - Cosmo's Factory)
9. Who'll Stop The Rain (CCR - Cosmo's Factory -double A single - #2)
10. I Heard It Through the Grapevine (CCR - Cosmo's Factory)
11. Long As I Can See The Light (CCR - Cosmo's Factory)
12. Centerfield (Solo - Centerfield - single - #44)
13. Green River (CCR - Green River - single - #2)
14. Portersville (CCR - Creedence Clearwater Revival - single - didn't chart)
15. Lodi (CCR - Green River - b-side - #52)
16. Mystic Highway (Solo - Wrote a Song for Everyone)
17. Train Of Fools (Solo - Wrote a Song for Everyone)
18. Midnight Special (CCR - Willy and the Poor Boys)
19. Hot Rod Heart (Solo - Blue Moon Swamp - single - did not chart)
20. Rock and Roll Girls (Solo - Centerfield - single - #20)
21. Born On the Bayou (CCR - Bayou Country)
22. Almost Saturday Night (Solo - John Fogerty - single - #78)
23. Keep on Chooglin (CCR - Bayou Country)
24. Have You Ever Seen The Rain (CCR - Pendulum - single - #8)
25. Pretty Woman
26. Down on the Corner (CCR - Willy and the Poor Boys - double A single - #3)
27. The Old Man Down the Road (Solo - Centerfield - single - #10)
28. Fortunate Son (CCR - Willy and the Poor Boys - double A single - #3)

29. Hey Tonight (CCR - Pendulum)
30. Bad Moon Rising (CCR - Green River - single - #2)
31. Proud Mary (CCR - Bayou Country - single - #2)

I could swear he also played this early in the set:

Rockin' All Over The World (Solo - John Fogerty - single - #27)

But don't find anything supporting it on youtube or elsewhere.

Not a lot of newer stuff: Mystic Highway and Train Of Fools off the new album and Hot Rod Heart off his 1997 album. The other solo stuff was the trio of singles off Centerfield from 1985, and 1 (or 2) singles from his 1975 solo album. In turn, 23 songs from CCR. Almost all of the hits, and thanks to playing a whole album you got some deep cuts if you're a hardcore CCR fan. I have to say Long As I Can See The Light was terrific to see live.

He's making the shows available for download here:

http://www.livedownloads.com/live-music/3%2C942/John-Fogerty-mp3-flac-downloads.html

The Greek Theatre in Berkeley would be the one mirroring what Steve and I saw, with the exception of me thinking Rockin' All Over The World was played at Nokia.

One last thing: he's 68. I thought it was just a staggeringly sharp performance from someone who is far from a spring chicken. Loads of fun, major bucket list thing to be able to have seen him, and seen him so sharp made it off the charts. And of course being able to see him with Steve. :)

[Steve Yohe]

Good show. Night to remember. I was impressed with the Nokia Theater. Easy to get in and out. Small enough to see from everywhere. The balcany might be a good spot if it meant not having a 6'5" guy standing in front of you all night. Thanks.--Yohe