JimmyChezPants 🇨🇦<p>So I would call that more of a "Randy Bachman Show" than a <a href="https://growers.social/tags/BTO" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BTO</span></a> show. Good, but Randy is in full-on self-indulgence mode these days, I'd say, and hey, with a family like his, why wouldn't you.</p><p>Both opening acts were on point, despite lacking their most important members. </p><p>Although Darby Mills is still around, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvRekK5pAlM" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">still looks and sounds as hot and sexy as ever</a>, they have a young lady who, from the distance of a skybox that I was invited to watch from, I thought was her for the first minute or two, cause she sounds that much like her. </p><p>Whatever sequence of events made them forsake one of Canada's greatest Rock Chicks for a duplicate, they oughta find a way to patch that up, unless maybe Darby doesn't do the road anymore, cause that can take a lot out of anyone. I just poked at a search of the band and I see that their current singer had left and then came back last year. There's been some stuff that's happened with this band.</p><p>Favorite moment of their set was when they pulled out Brian MacLeod's red Strat for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGTS-2fJaQg" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Don't It Make Ya Feel</a>, and then hearing <em>that</em> guitar sound, which is pretty much the elemental electric guitar sound that I was programmed with at a very young age - every time that song comes on, the sound of the guitar astounds me, round and rich and raw, and they got it on stage last night.</p><p>Next up was April Wine, a mainly Canadian success, but they were YUGE here in the 70s/80s. Their main dude, Myles Goodwyn, died last year, but just like Dusty Hill, he wanted the band to go on, and they hired a sharp young gun who does the job very well. </p><p>In what may well be happening all over the <a href="https://growers.social/tags/ClassicRock" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClassicRock</span></a> circuit these days, they also pulled out Goodwyn's old guitar for a song or two. I don't buy into concepts like "mojo" but I do appreciate reverence for a fallen comrade's axe. If you're wondering, you will get good value for your entertainment dollar, if you check out an April Wine show these days.</p><p>The Randy Bachman set - this was not really BTO at all - was a mixed and disappointing bag. For one thing, there was no T there, just some young feller who did an admirable job of delivering his working class anthems in a suitably rough voice. We were entertained.</p><p>But I did mainly show up to see Charles Frederick Turner, not Bachman, whom I actually don't particularly like that much. His guitar playing is tasty as heck, yes, but there is a bit of the Gene Simmons to him and Burton alike that, once I got past the "local rock stars" hero worship of my childhood, has always rubbed me the wrong way.</p><p>In fact, if I had not been sitting in a skybox that my BiL had graciously invited us to join them in for the show, I almost yelled a Fuck You at him at one point. He wrote a hit called "Looking Out For Number One" which is exactly what it sounds like, an admonition to take care of yourself first and foremost.</p><p>It came off like musical career advice in the 70s, and was never a favorite because of its Breau-influenced jazziness, which was not my thing back in the 80s when I found their Greatest Hits in my dad's record collection. </p><p>As we listened to that album on the way to the show, I grooved on the song, cause Breauish jazzy stuff is definitely my jam these days. But as the lyrics rolled through I thought to myself, this is not the sort of attitude that we need in our society right now.</p><p>So when the time came to play it, Randy pretty much went off about how this song is "just what we need right now!" and said to go say I Love You in the mirror ten times and a bunch more boomer bullshit, and tried to tack on "and take care of everyone else too" at the end, as though that was somehow part of the song's message - it is not, and while I'm sure it pleased a lot of the old people that filled the arena, no, "Looking out for number one" is absolutely not anything that we need right now.</p><p>Said that I'll say this: CF Turner is no Burton Cummings, he is in fact the direct opposite of a Burton Cummings, he is in fact the Anti-Cummings. He is a shaggy majestic <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oUBxyXxyFo" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Rock'n'Roll Yeti with the voice of an angry bear</a>.</p><p>It would follow, then, that the Fake Fred who occupied Turner's spot on the stage last night would also not be much of a Burton Cummings. And so, the divergence into a bunch of Guess Who material with a guy who sounds like CF Turner on vocals, well, that was forgivable, but ill-advised. </p><p>He didn't do a bad job of it actually, when I say his voice is rough, it's also properly harmonious at all times, he's very good. But the shit rocked when it needed to roll, you know what I mean? </p><p>They also eliminated New Mother Nature from No Sugar Tonight, which is <em>exactly</em> like removing the second movement from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TngViNw2pOo" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Layla</a>. You just don't fuckin do it unless you're an asshole. It's the payoff for putting up with all that random guitar noise.</p><p>Let me bring it back, though, to the fact that it was mostly a very good set, with very little to complain about in terms of musicianship. Again, this was not at all a BTO show, it was a Randy Bachman show, with his son Tal very capably handling second lead guitar duties, and Koko Bachman, a force of nature if ever I saw one, on drums (also married to Tal); a family band, and very much a family show.</p><p>But on that topic, my guess is that we'll see Tal and Koko alongside Randy for as long as he's still with us, but I'm gonna be <em>extremely</em> interested in what they do moving forward, other than the nostalgia circuit. He is a <em>hell</em> of a guitarist, and Koko is rolling thunder in a very tiny package, and they both have many great and productive years ahead of them.</p><p>They did play Tal's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ElORM9O-0U" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hit</a> from a couple decades ago, but he seemed almost embarrassed about it - not the song itself, just that it was getting played at a nominally BTO show. It's a fine composition, but it's not a BTO tune.</p><p>And neither was the twenty-odd minute medley of random FM radio material that had nothing whatsoever to do with Randy Bachman, <a href="https://growers.social/tags/Winnipeg" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Winnipeg</span></a> or anything, in the encore, before finally and mercifully playing Taking Care Of Business and releasing us to our long drive home. </p><p>"You Shook Me All Night Long," Randy? C'mon man.</p>