Rock and Roll comes in many flavors, but for my money, it's hard to beat the bluesy guitar, grit and growl and driving beat of an act like Stevie Ray Vaughan. I never got to see the legendary Texan live, but I've always loved his music. Last night at the Ohio State Fair, I thought I'd maybe had a little taste of what a Vaughan concert must have been like, as the crowd rocked out to an incredible set from George Thorogood and the Destroyers.
State fair concerts can be something of a mixed bag. On the one hand, you get to see a number of acts "on the way up," so to speak, occasionally you get to see acts in their prime (I'm thinking of the latter years of a multi-year run Rascall Flatts did at Crew Stadium during the Fair), and when it comes to country and rock and roll, you often get Grade A acts who haven't been on the charts for a decade or so.
I love those shows that fall in the last category. Over the years, I've had the pleasure to see a pretty diverse range of these concerts at the Fair, including Night Ranger, Foreigner and Journey (that was an excellent show), Kenny Rogers (formerly of The Fifth Dimension), Merle Haggard and The Oak Ridge Boys (twice, because they're worth seeing more than once, frankly). Maybe it's nostalgia, but there's just something great about seeing seasoned veterans take the stage, lauded by a crowd of folks who were hellraisers back in the day, but who are respectable parents and professionals now... but who still know how to throw their heads back and howl when the music is hot. (People-watching at a state fair is always an adventure - it's perhaps even more so at a state fair rock show...)
Before we get to the main event, a brief word about the opening act, .38 Special. Band founder Don Barnes and his crew still put on a good show, though I'll admit I was surprised at how little of their catalogue I actually knew. They blistered through roughly 18 songs in an hour-long set, and I estimate that I actually knew 17% of the list.
That isn't to say that this detracted from the show... but the show wasn't nearly as good as it could have been because the mix was pretty awful. The tech running the board (we had a pretty good view of his station from our seats in the bleachers of the Celeste Center) never did seem to get things right. Maybe two songs out of 12 had a really good, crisp feel to them - most of set, unfortunately, the vocals were terribly "muddy," and the gain was definitely off more often than not.
Normally, I'd think this was a trick to cover up the fact that the lead vocalist doesn't have the chops after four decades on the road, but in this case I don't think that was it at all. The 64-year-old Barnes (and keyboardist Bobby Capps, who also takes lead on a few numbers) definitely still seemed to have the sound, because those few numbers where the mix felt right, they sounded great. I suppose most of the beer-fueled patrons were caught up enough with the entertainment not to notice, but the other audiophiles in the room surely did, because the contrast between Special and Thorogood, audiologically-speaking, was night and day.
Naturally, the band finished its set with its biggest hit, Hold On Loosely, which didn't disappoint in the least. The crowd, content to sit through most of the set (I'm reminded of discussions about standing versus sitting in Ohio Stadium...), was definitely on its feet for the show-stopper. It was a satisfying end to a nice appetizer.
As a side note, I'd like to see Thorogood in concert again, but I'd like to see a stronger opening act. Night Ranger was a good opening to Foreigner and Journey, but I don't know if their setlist is any stronger than Special's.
Following Special was a near-45-minute set change. This seemed needlessly long, but it gave patrons plenty of time to get more beer and check out the merchandise table, which it seemed they did in spades (especially the beer... lots of beer appears to have been sold at the Celeste Center last night). At roughly quarter-till nine, the house lights went out, spotlights hit the drum set, and the speakers pumped out Barry McGuire's Eve of Destruction, which is a tune that I wasn't super familiar with, but was an objectively good way to let folks know that it was time to collect their suds and get their asses back to their seats, because the show was about to start.
Simply put, Thorogood brought the goods. At 67 years of age, the man hasn't lost a lick, either vocally or as a picker. He still has the grit, growl and just a little high, lonesome sound (when he wants to) that he had when the Destroyers' first album dropped in 1977.
Looking like a mashup of Mick Jagger and Morton Downey, Jr., Thorogood is clearly at home on the stage, and the crowd loved him. He played the room in a way only born performers can, and backs it up musically from the first note to the second encore.
Thorogood - back to my allusion to SRV at the top of the page - is as good a picker as he is a singer. Sharpening his signature white Gibson ES-125s for extended periods on just about every number (he averages ~8 songs an hour, and the full 12-song set took just shy of 90 minutes), the jamming never feels indulgent like some extended bridges do - it's just great music, and a thrill to watch a craftsman at work.
Technically, I suppose, Thorogood is known more for slide than for picking, per se, and to hear him tell it, he's not terribly good at it (I call BS, frankly, having just watched him play):
To tell you the truth, I prefer not to solo at all. I’m not much of a soloist, and when it gets past slide guitar or Chuck Berry licks, I’m kind of lost. And even on slide, I’m just repeating everything I’ve done. My style is kind of locked into a certain area, so I try to find tunes that’ll fit with what I already know. These days, I really prefer to turn the guitar solos over to Jimmy Suhler [who joined the Destroyers in 2000]. He comes up with some outstanding stuff.
Most folks probably don't realize that Thorogood's signature numbers, from Move It On Over to One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer, are mostly his own treatment of someone else's singles (the former, Hank Williams, the latter, John Lee Hooker. As the Delaware native told Gibson in 2014:
When I first started getting interested in doing vocals, the first singer I related to was Mick Jagger — when he was doing blues covers with Brian Jones on the first couple Rolling Stones records. As rock evolved I started hearing guitar going in the direction of Jimi Hendrix and voice going in the direction of Robert Plant. I said, “Oh my God, I can never do anything like that!” To me Hendrix and Zeppelin were the last word in rock. That’s where it hit its peak. But their roots were blues, so I started to backtrack and listen to Jimmy Reed’s, Elvin Bishop’s, Howlin’ Wolf’s and Johnny Cash’s voices. They just sing like themselves. That all you need to do as long as you have a really good song, such as [Jerry Reed’s] “She Got the Goldmine and I Got the Shaft.” That’s a very funny song. You don’t need a great voice to sing “I Walk the Line.”
The blues was a natural fit for me. I loved Howlin’ Wolf and John Lee Hooker, who sing in a lower register. I was also encouraged listening to Tom Waits, who kind of talk-sings. He’s a storyteller. He’s not hitting the notes that Beverly Sills or Pavarotti hit. People will listen to “Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan and say, “That guy cant even sing!” But listen to what he is singing. That’s key.
So I played and sang naturally. I decided to sing something that’s funny and play something that’s bad on the guitar. Like my “Get a Haircut and Get a Real Job” — that’s natural for me. There was no point in trying to be like Jeff Beck or Carlos Santana. And I realized I was never going to write like Neil Young or Joni Mitchell. I decided, “Do what George can do.” And I found there were a few cool things George could do… if I picked the right tunes.
The set finished with Bad To The Bone, as one would expect. Two extended encores followed, and honestly, I'd have stayed to listen to them play the set again, it was that good.
There isn't a thing I'd change about Thorogood's show. From the set list itself to the orchestration to the staging, it was pitch perfect. The Destroyers have been out there doing the dang deal for 40+ years, and they're definitely one of the best live music experiences I've ever had. If you've never had the pleasure, save your milk money and go catch them out on the road. You won't be disappointed.
