KITCHENER: Summer in Canada means festivals galore!
And so it was in Kitchener, less than an hour’s drive from Toronto, as they revved up this past weekend with amazing bands like Eric Burdon and The Animals, Foghat , Earl and The Agitators, Pat Travers, Chilliwack and more!
The festival kicked off on Thursday, August 4, and continued till Sunday, August 7.
Earl and The Agitators launched the festival getting everybody into the groove. They not only played their own songs but some awesome covers of Red House by guitar God Jimi Hendrix (well known all over the world including India where he had a huge following) and Beck’s Bolero by Jeff Beck (who also still has a great following in India).
Foghat started with their “8 days on the Road!” with an amazing guitar freak-out that had the guitarist sweating away and his band mate wiping his face! “Stone Blue” and a couple more songs followed before they broke into “I just wanna make love to you” with the crowd joining in. “Slow Ride” brought their act to an end.
Roger Earl, founder of the band, really showed his prowess on the drums.
The band everyone was waiting for –Eric Burdon and The Animals- slammed into their set with “Spill the wine!” with an amazing saxophone player doing his thing on his instrument. The song got everyone singing. The band also boasted of a great clarinet player. They did several blues and rock numbers including a Grand Funk Railroad song “Inside Looking Out”. The band then broke into “(Lord, please) Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood!” with tremendous audience participation. At every moment Eric sang “please don’t let me be misunderstood” the crowd sang with him until he just let the crowd sing for him. It was a grand moment in time!
He then broke into his global masterpiece that many bands all over the world would cover including bands in India- the fabled “House Of The rising Sun!”. He completely changed the studio version and rocked the grounds with a superlative live version. At 75, Eric still has a stupendous voice that mesmerized everyone.
Then came “We Gotta Get Outta This Place” with everybody joining in again.
Eric came back for an encore to resounding applause and ended the night with an extended Motown number from the incredible duo Sam & Dave: “Hold on, I’m coming!”
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