Ottawa Sun:
http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2006/06/27/pf-1655156.html
June 27, 2006
Live Review: Bachman/Cummings in Ott.
Bachman, Cummings play their appreciative fans a rhapsody
By DENIS ARMSTRONG -- Ottawa Sun
OTTAWA - Then there were two.
After a long legal wrangle over copyrights to the name "The Guess Who," the legendary band's two frontmen, Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman, got rid of the rest of the band, packed up about 20 of the Guess Who's classics and a smattering of their own solo hits, and took their show on the road with the "First Time Around" tour that played Scotiabank Place last night.
And judging by the show the pair put on, and the warm reception some 5,000 fans gave them, it's apparent there is still a lot of life left in the Guess Who reunion industry.
But if nostalgia was all the pair had to offer, I'd doubt that these semi-annual concerts, the musical equivalent of looking at old family photo albums, would have the same popular hold that they continue to have.
What was surprisingly obvious at last night's gig was that, for Bachman and Cummings, playing songs in a giant Canadian hockey arena in front of thousands of beer-swilling fans is still a major buzz, and what easily could have become an auto-pilot performance of songs Bachman and Cummings could do in their sleep, turned out to be a bold, charming and even passionate performance and a bold statement.
Bachman, 62, and Cummings, 59, aren't ready for rock 'n' roll retirement. Not yet.
Particularly Cummings. In recent times Bachman has been everywhere, seemingly always on the road. I think he would play the opening of a Tim Hortons if they asked him.
But since the band's reunion in 1999 at the Winnipeg Pan Am Games, Cummings seemed to simultaneously embrace, and be a tad embarrassed by, the whole Guess Who living-in-the-past industry.
If there was any reluctance in his performances in the past, there was no evidence of it last night, proving once again that he is the best singer this nation has ever produced.
The pair opened with a video montage dating back to the black-and-white images of 1965 when the boys were fresh-faced kids trying to get out of Winnipeg.
Backed by The Carpet Frogs, Bachman and Cummings started things off with an indecipherable bluegrass vocal jam.
Then Bachman started playing that familiar chord progression "da-dadanda-na da-da, da-da nadadadada-dana" that you'd know anywhere, at least if you were alive in the 1960s or a more recent fan of Lenny Kravitz's cover, as American Woman.
That Bachman and Cummings would even attempt a rewrite of the 1969 classic was astounding.
But there would be plenty of surprising moments throughout the night.
There were no surprises on the setlist: Every song was a hit, including You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, Clap For the Wolfman, Let It Ride and the two-fer-the price of one No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature.
I was surprised at how focused Cummings was, and how powerfully he sang on Hand Me Down World, Albert Flasher and These Eyes, enough to send a shiver down my spine.
Cummings' razor-sharp vocals blended beautifully with Bachman's guitar licks, which only seemed to have improved with age, especially when he dipped into a Lenny Breau-like jazzy jam.
I guess about the only thing that left me unimpressed were Cummings' own solo hits.
Yikes.
Even though they sold a gazillion copies in the late 1970s, tunes such as Timeless Love, My Own Way To Rock, Break It To Them Gently and Fine State of Affairs just sounded sappy, sentimental and missing the muscle power of the Guess Who or BTO.
In the end, it simply didn't matter whatever name they go by. Bachman and Cummings let the music speak for itself.
Loud and clear.
Opening for Bachman was Toronto's Serena Ryder and Joshua Bartholomew.
