As
British bands from the classic rock era go, Bad Company isn’t one that instantly
rises to the top, compared with, say, Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd.
Along
with a lot of other groups, Bad Company long has been snubbed by folks who
think that they know everything, which is why there is a Facebook page entitled
Why The Hell Is Bad Company Not In The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame.
To
be sure, the band’s performance Saturday illustrated why Bad Company might not be
Hall-worthy. Half of the four members date to the band’s self-titled debut album. None
of the musicians are virtuosos. And the band never had enough hits to fill the entire
75 minutes they played on Saturday.
Then
again, Def Leppard is in the hall of fame, and so, why not Bad Company? After Saturday’s
show, it is a worthy point.
The
opening was not promising. “Can’t Get Enough” was plodding, shaky, tentative —
like a bar band hatched on Thursday that performed in public three days later,
before musicians had gotten to know each other. Basic three-chord rock-and-roll
never has been difficult, but it takes a certain swagger to execute well, and
it didn’t happen out of the gate on Saturday. But it did develop.
Things
were playing out nicely by the third number, “Feel Like Makin’ Love.” The band
looked and sounded more comfortable than at the beginning. A few issues
remained: Vocal harmonies were overbearing, but that, likely wasn’t the band’s
fault – you sing, someone else not on stage is supposed to ensure it’s at the
proper volume so that everything sounds pretty together. Paul Rodgers’ harmonica
playing was not particularly, or even close to, sophisticated. It got the point
across but no more than that.
The
band hit its stride with “Moving On,” the next number and, for the most part,
never looked back. The show’s success, and it was a success, largely hinged on
Rodgers, an original member who mostly sings but also played piano and guitar
on a couple numbers. Bad Company is not much a visual act. Todd Ronning, bassist
who joined in 2012, moved a bit, but lead guitarist Howard Leese, who’s been
with the band since 2008, was, mostly, a statue. That left Rodgers to twirl his
microphone stand and gesture with his hands while twisting his voice around
familiar lyrics so that things sounded fresh. And he did a good job of keeping
stuff interesting by toying with phrasing during songs everyone
knew by heart.
By
the show’s second half, Rodgers didn’t bother singing choruses to hits such as “Shooting
Star” and “All Right Now.” The audience, happily and loudly, did his job for
him. During “All Right Now,” there was a blatant nod to nostalgia with old
concert and publicity photos of the band Free, which made the song a hit in 1970,
projected onto screens set up on either side of the stage while Rodgers and
drummer Simon Kirke, who left Free to form Bad Company in 1973, belted it out
along with the rest of the current band. It was a nice touch.
Less
successful was some filler material, notably “All Along The Watchtower,” which sounded
like neither Bob Dylan nor Jimi Hendrix, but, rather, Bad Company trying to sound
like Hendrix and not making it. The version, predictable to the core, invited
the audience to clap along, which thankfully no one did. It was a choice made
more curious by the omission of some original material, notably “Run With The Pack.”
On the other hand, “All Because Of You,” from Kirke’s 2017 solo album of the
same name, was pure delight. Emerging from behind his drums, Kirke picked up an
acoustic guitar and dedicated the song to his wife, beaming the whole while. It
was an unexpected nugget every bit as much fun as anything played all night.
Foghat,
the opener, played a 60-minute set that included all the expected hits while making
one wonder, why didn’t more classic rock bands make more use of slide guitar? Wisely,
drummer Roger Earl, the only original member, was buttressed by a percussionist stationed
near the back of the stage who augmented a few numbers – you never can have
enough cow bell going on at a Foghat show. Guitarist Bryan Bassett, observing his
20th year with the band, was, arguably, the best musician to take the
stage on Saturday night. When he put the slide away, particularly on “Take Me
To The River,” the snarl made even more perfect the perfect cover, when you
think about it, for a band like Foghat.
SET
LIST (Foghat)
1.
Drivin’
Wheel
2.
Stone
Blue
3.
Chateau
Lafitte ’59 Boogie
4.
Take
Me To The River
5.
Third
Time Lucky
6.
Fool
For The City
7.
I
Just Want To Make Love To You
8.
Slow
Ride
Bad
Company
1.
Can’t
Get Enough
2.
Live
For The Music
3.
Feel
Like Makin’ Love
4.
Movin’ On
5.
Young
Blood
6.
Gone,
Gone Gone
7.
All
Because Of You
8.
Seagull
9.
Ready
For Love
10. All
Along The Watchtower
11. Shooting
Star
12. Bad
Company
13. All
Right Now
14. Rock
and Roll Fantasy (encore)
Bruce Rushton can be reached at brushton@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Aug 8-14, 2019.
