John Fogerty has officially entered the “playing county fairs” stage of his career, which is fine by me because it was much easier to go see him in Del Mar than going to Vegas again (he is still doing residencies in Vegas as well).
What made this occasion extra special is that Ingrid and I were joined by her dad and his wife. Her dad is a drummer and loves CCR. He has a great story about going up to Berkeley in 1968 or 69 and getting arrested for looking the wrong way combined with being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had to hang out in the area for another week to await his court date and during that time met a couple girls who were staying with Country Joe and the Fish that let him know there was going to be a free concert at the clock tower with new bands Santana Blues Band and a band that just changed their name to Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Back to the show – Mr. Fogerty still has it. The voice that I love so much is not quite what it used to be but is still unmistakably his and ironically lends itself better to his solo material now. He changes guitars during his set like other performers change wardrobes and shared a fun story about his beloved Rickenbacker. Apparently at a low point right before the disbandment of CCR he gave it away to a 10 year old fan that came to the studio asking if he could have something and this is what he gave him. Many years later the guitar was located but the owner wanted a handsome sum for the guitar so Fogerty passed only to later find on Christmas morning that his wife had purchased it to reunite the guitar with its rightful owner.
Fogerty’s two sons Shane and Tyler were still a part of his band this time and like last time I saw John Fogerty they did “Good Golly Miss Molly” with Tyler taking on the crazy high parts. I am jealous of his dance moves. Guess who else showed up like last time? Yep Bill Walton, who is becoming a fixture at concerts I attend.
My hands down favorite moment was when they played “Ramble Tamble.” Ramble Tamble!!! I could not believe my ears. This is one of my favorite CCR songs and I could not believe he played it because this is more of a deep cut. CCR definitely has way more hits he could have played. It was extra cool because Ingrid and I were wearing our Cosmo’s Factory shirts. I choose to believe someone from their camp saw us wearing these shirts so he decided to play the song for us. Alright that is probably a stretch but still super cool.
At age 77 this plaid shirt loving son of a bitch does not have anything left to prove and I doubt he needs the money. He seems to just be having fun and creating memories with his boys that they will cherish forever.
Setlist: Up Around the Bend, Green River, Born on the Bayou, Rock and Roll Girls, Who’ll Stop the Rain, Lookin’ Out My Back Door, Hot Rod Heart, Ramble Tamble, Joy of My Life, I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Good Golly Miss Molly, New Orleans, Keep On Chooglin’, Have You Ever Seen the Rain?, Down on the Corner, Centerfield, The Old Man Down the Road, Fortunate Son, Bad Moon Rising, Proud Mary
John Fogerty is a living legend. Once I found out he was still playing at 72 years old I looked into it and found out that he was doing a short residency at the Wynn in Las Vegas followed by a summer tour with ZZ Top followed by another short run at the Wynn. Seeing him with ZZ Top would have been badass but the tour was not slated to come anywhere near San Diego. Carpe Diem. Ingrid had wanted just the two of us to get away to somewhere like Vegas for a quick weekend trip ever since we returned from Aruba and when I told her John Fucking Fogerty was playing there she was over the moon. We decided a last minute trip was in order because who knew how many more opportunities the universe was going to offer to see him. After all, CCR held a special place in both our hearts for separate reasons, but also because the first concert we ever went to together was that other band touring around playing CCR songs calling themselves something very similar.
I will spare you ALL the Vegas debauchery but let’s just say that like our last minute trip, we also cut it close getting into the concert itself:
3:45 pm – Ingrid decided that she was feeling randy and proposed some afternoon delight.
4:05 pm – Me: “Do you feel that? Something feels weird.” Ingrid with look of horror on her face: “Oh shit! I forgot to take out my tampon!” Yes it took me longer than it should have to figure this out and yes we were making hanky panky near the end of her lady time but this comment immediately registered in my brain as “oh shit we have to go to the hospital to get it removed,” which was the very next thing that came out of Ingrid’s mouth.
4:15 pm – I walked around the corner to the pot dispensary to get an edible for the evening while Ingrid got ready to go out for the night. We knew we could very well be cutting it close to the 8 pm show time so had to prepare for the possibility of not coming back to our room beforehand.
4:30 pm – We grabbed her bottle of champagne and my tall boy Modelo, ordered a Lyft and requested he take us to the nearest hospital. Chatty Charlie behind the wheel inquired as to whom we were going to see and the first thing out of Ingrid’s mouth was “our friend broke her ankle…last night.” It was hard to hold in my laughter.
5 pm – We got checked into the emergency room and busted open our drinks in the waiting area. When in Vegas…
6:40 – They still had not called Ingrid’s name and I had to pick up our tickets at the Wynn no later than one hour before show time so I ate my special chocolate, hopped into a Lyft and hoped she would be able to join me in time.
7:29 – I got a text from Ingrid saying she was on her way!
7:45 – This is the time that we were supposed to show up to actually guarantee the seats that we purchased.
7:47 – We were granted entrance into the Wynn Theater. We immediately went to the only bar inside and waited in one of the five lines that were all going slow as molasses. About this time my special chocolate was kicking in so I really just wanted to get some beer and get to our seats.
8:03 – We apparently made it to our seats with a couple minutes to spare since the stage was empty save for “Fogerty” lit up in giant Vegas style letters. Our seats were awesome! We were sitting right in the first row of the balcony section not too far right of center. It was hard not to notice that this was the Alaska Cruise of concerts as I think we may have been the youngest people in attendance.
All of a sudden the theater got dark as the screen started projecting a little vignette of John riding a motorcycle through Vegas as he narrated how he felt about “Proud Mary” being covered by the likes of Elvis and Tina Turner. Before you know it the screen rolled up, John Fogerty popped up from under the stage playing “Proud Mary” and from then on it was pure bliss for roughly the next 90 minutes. The guy looked great for 72 years old and played guitar like a motherfucker but that voice…what little he may have lost with age was still unmistakably John Fogerty and still fantastic!
It was very much a Vegas show as many of the songs had added horn flourishes, keyboards and accordians but all the songs were still very much rock and roll. “Susie Q” was everything I needed it to be with the vocals progressively getting more balls out with each verse.
Almost right away I noticed that one of the other guitar players was flat out ripping it up. It turns out he was John’s son Shane Fogerty who played with him for the entire show. One very cool moment was when John’s other son Tyler Fogerty came out and joined dad and brother to sing “Good Golly Miss Molly” and killed it. He was donning a very 70’s Vegas looking red suit with embellishments and kept doing this Little Richard scream thing that was just perfect. I’m pretty sure we could be friends.
A couple of times throughout the show the smoke machines combined with our vantage point (and maybe my special chocolate) made it look as if John Fogerty was playing on a cloud, like when he took to the piano for “Long As I Can See the Light.”
Throughout the entire show there was one guy on the floor section standing up the entire time just loving it. I recognized him almost immediately as none other than Bill Walton because he is hard to miss at seven feet tall and ironically I ran into him one other time in Vegas. At one point during “New Orleans” a miniature marching band left the stage to walk down the aisle Bill Walton was in. The last person in this line was the drummer and he decided to hand Bill Walton his drum, which he happily put on and joined the band.
Near the end John ran through three of his solo “hits” and played a baseball bat guitar for “Centerfield.” It was fitting that he closed the show with a blistering version of “Fortunate Son.” No horns here. Just good old-fashioned rock and roll from one of the legends. Thank you Mr. Fogerty.
SETLIST: Proud Mary, Green River, Susie Q, Oh! Susanna, Lookin’ Out My Back Door, Lodi, Good Golly Miss Molly, Whote Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On/Boogie Woogie Blues, Long As I Can See the Light, Love and War, Keep on Chooglin’, Who’ll Stop the Rain, I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Born on the Bayou, My Toot Toot, Jambalaya (On the Bayou), New Orleans, Have You Ever Seen the Rain?, Down on the Corner, Rock and Roll Girls, The Old Man Down the Road, Up Around the Bend, Centerfield, Bad Moon Rising, Fortunate Son
