San Diego County Fair

John Fogerty 6/25/22

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 

Pat Benetar 6/10/11

Pat Benetar

It is probably a very strange thing for an artist to be playing at fairgrounds after selling out arenas in the past. Pat Benetar was a mega star back in the 80’s. In fact the second video ever played on MTV was “You Better Run” by Pat Benetar, which made her the first female artist ever played on MTV and Neil “Spyder” Giraldo the first guitar player to ever play on MTV (for those of you that don’t know MTV used to be a channel that played music videos). They played a really cool acoustic version of the song with just her and Neil. They interlaced the songs with storytelling of how some of the songs came together and how Pat and Neil came together and got married (they were bandmates first and have been married since 1982).

I have always liked the harder edged Pat Benetar songs because they are very guitar driven and she has a great voice. Both her voice and Neil’s guitar playing still sounded incredible. Pat Benetar had no backup singers at her age; just her wailing away. I don’t remember them playing my favorite song “Treat Me Right” but I do remember them playing “Hell Is For Children,” “Invincible” and “Heartbreaker.” If they had any weird feelings about playing the San Diego County Fair they certainly did not show it. They just seemed genuinely happy to still be able to do what they love doing.