So, yesterday my dad and I ventured forth to go see another concert. Concerts are sort of our thing. Some people fish or hunt with their dads, I go see concerts with mine. We've seen the likes of Metallica, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne together. This time, we took part in the music of blues-rock guitarist George Thorogood. Oh yeah, and the rest of his band, The Destroyers.

For those of you who haven't heard any of George Thorogood's music, please direct yourself to this handy music video. OK, now that you know what kind of music he plays, I can continue.

We knew coming in that the crowd was going to be fairly light since they only had about a quarter of the arena seats open (from the blue line to the boards) and even then there were still a lot of empty seats when the show started. However, the floor area which was general admission was packed with a very diverse crowd. The crowd ranged from people my age right through to people in their 60's. I also saw a couple of Hell's Angels milling around, enjoying the music. While the crowd was fairly light, it was an absolutely fantastic crowd to be a part of. Everyone was full of energy, extremely into the concert and were all big fans of Thorogood. Everyone was singing along to every song. Good times.

ANYWAYS...

The opening act came out to get the already warm crowd...even more warmed up I guess. They were a local band out of Massachusetts who's name I can't remember for the life of me right now. I guess the only really important part of their set was that they were actually quite good. Their opening song involved a banjo and an accordion. To me, that's a mark of a winning band. Their sound was a nice mix of CCR and Phish, nice and mellow with a southern feel to it. Even my dad, who typically doesn't like any opening act no matter what got really into them. They got a nice reponse from the crowd and had some fun on stage.

So, that band finishes and gets their stuff off stage and the lights go down. A lone guitar is playing a blues-rock riff and George Thorogood walks out onto the stage followed by The Destroyers. They waste no time getting into their set, starting off with "Rock Party". They came out on the stage with tremendous energy that you could really feel in their playing. Even the solos just had a little something extra that put them over the top. This energy whipped the already excited crowd into a frenzy, which caused the band to get more excited. It was an excercise in feedback loops.

Throughout the set, they played their bigger, more well known songs like "Bad to the Bone", "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" and "I Drink Alone". They also played some of my favourites like "Get a Haircut and Get a Real Job" and "You Talk Too Much". They even covered some of Johnny Cash's material, to the delight of the crowd. After playing about an hour and ten minutes, they leave the stage, but the crowd wanted more. For not even a quarter arena, the crowd was extremely loud. The band came back out on stage and played another three songs, then left again. At this point, both my dad and I thought the show was over and were giving a well deserved standing ovation. But something was amiss. The house lights weren't coming on. I've developed a rule at concerts, never leave until the house lights are on because you don't know what you're going to miss. Sure, enough the band came back on stage for a second set of encores. By this point, a number of people had left thinking the show was over, so there was even more space in the crowd. The high energy music combined with the energy of the crowd saw the floor area and the stands turn into an impromptu dance floor. People were dancing in the aisles, in the seats, on the floor....everywhere. They finished up the set by playing O Canada (with the house lights on just to confuse us), with everyone singing along.

This concert was a complete surprise to me. Nothing that happened was expected, from the calibre of the warm up act, the energy of the otherwise small crowd and the great show put on by the headliners. It ranks among the best concerts I've ever seen, too. If you ever get the chance to see George Thorogood and the Destroyers, definitely take it. You won't be disappointed.