Foghat with Mountain Ash
High Park Pavilion
Derby, Kansas
October 3, 2009
Foghat Set List:
Ride Ride Ride | Take Me to the River | My Babe |Drivin' Wheel
|Third Time Lucky | Stone Blue | Chateau Lafite | Fool For the
City | I Just Wanna Make Love To You
Encore:
Slow Ride
October
outdoors in Kansas can get a bit nippy as Foghat drummer Roger
Earl noticed. From the side of the stage I could easily lip
read him say to bass player Craig MacGregor “I’m cold.” Truth
is that it was just warm enough not to see one’s breath and once
Roger got all of the gears rotating around the skins; he warmed
himself up and put on one hell of a show.
Opening
act, Mountain Ash, didn’t understand why anyone in the crowd or
on the stage would be shivering. They hail from Minnesota and
as bassist Mark
Juenemann
stated to me after getting off stage, “Man, it is nice to be
somewhere that is warm!” The other “Mark” in the band, Mark
Kirchhoff, may look like an accountant but don’t be fooled, he
can play the hell of out the electric as he proved playing note
perfect covers of Blue Oyster Cult and UFO. The other guitar
player is Kevin Abernathy, another talented axe slinger capable
of pushing out some David Gilmour licks during “Comfortably
Numb.” Behind the band is Brandon
Fjetland,
whose long blonde locks fly in the breeze even faster than his
arms beat the rums. Juenemann
is an excellent bass player who hangs loose and looks cool even
though his fingers are a-flying. The front man for Mountain Ash
seems to get most of the attention… and the woman. Known only
as Rogar… pronounced ROW-GAR...he prances around the stage and
bashes out his gravely voice with utter lack of concern for his
own health or the health of those in the first few rows. This
man, and this band, love rock n’ roll.
Once the
Minnesota rockers left the stage, it was time for the main
attraction. If there was ever a band that was born to boogie it
was Foghat. Even though Duke of Foghat, Roger Earl, is the only
original member still with the band, (front man Lonesome Dave
Peverett and guitarist Rod Price have both passed away) the
spirit of Foghat remains alive and well. Bass player Craig
Macgregor was around during the 70’s heyday while guitarist
Bryan Bassett has made it his life’s goal to recreate his best
friend, Lonesome Dave’s licks. Back when Craig and Roger were
cranking up “Slow Ride” in the late 1970’s, current day vocalist
Charlie Huhn was singing for The Motor City Madman Ted Nugent.
Huhn can be heard on the Nugent classics Weekend Warriors,
State of Shock, Scream Dream and Intensities in
Ten Cities.
As is
obviously clear, Foghat are still 100% a rock band slugging it
out across the land for the love of their music. The band took
the stage and they were ‘on’ from the opening notes of “Ride
Ride Ride.” It is refreshing to see four guys in a band whose
only goal is to rock out, both for their own enjoyment and for
the enjoyment of the on looking crowd. Foghat prefer impress the
fans with their music. They're not there to dance in
tandem or entertain you with flashy lights and gimmicks. The
four men on stage would rather be caught dead than to lip synch
or to play to preprogrammed tracks. With Foghat, what you get
is what you get. And, on this particular night in Derby,
Kansas, what you got was a band that is bound and determined to
roll till their old and rock till they drop.
“Take Me to
the River” got people warmed up before “My Babe” got them
dancing and “Drivin’ Wheel” got them rocking. From our vantage
point, we had a stagehand that was bouncing, playing air guitar
and shouting so loud that we were afraid he was going to wet
himself. Behind us, just outside our VIP area, was a drunk
chick that was bound and determined to slur her words and tell
everyone around her how much she loved Foghat and deserved to be
backstage. The sideshows, while interesting, were not nearly as
satisfying as the main event.
Back in the day, Foghat strayed a bit from their boogie soul and
released a pop song titled “Third Time Lucky.” While it was a
huge hit for the band, they have not made a habit of playing the
song live – until this year. Roger Earl told me that they were
going to play it a few months ago in an interview we did and I
questioned him about that since the tune is so different that
the rest of the back catalog. Roger said, “You wait and see
what you think.” Well, I have to admit that this was a very
sleek and cool version of the song. In fact, all the way home I
kept humming the song over and over in the car. “Stone Blue”
kept the hit machine running and then came the moment that this
writer had been waiting for. It was time for the blues as “Chateau
Lafite” bumped and ground its way around to a huge jam that
ended up turning into “I Just Wanna Make Love to You.”
Foghat left the stage but the show was not over. The crowd
chanted “Slow Ride” and Huhn did the classic opening yell before
Bassett ground out the classic riff. It should be mentioned
that there were many younger, high school aged kids head banging
near the front of the stage. They were into the music and were
totally rocking out. One wonders if this is the result of “Slow
Ride” being prominently featured in the video game Guitar
Hero. Whatever the root cause may be, it is a good feeling
to see the next generation of rockers discovering what real
music, like Fogat, feels like.
At the end of the night, Earl was no longer complaining about
the weather, instead he was rocking out and bashing his drums
like he had a fever. Craig MacGregor was smiling from
ear-to-ear, as he was on fire the entire night. He does not
simply play bass; he punishes the instrument into submission
and, along with Earl, provides the landscape for Bassett and
Huhn to totally decimate with guitar solos. Huhn has a strong
voice and can play the hell out of a Les Paul guitar as well.
While there is no "star" in Foghat,
guitarist
Bryan Bassett is an incredible guitar player, both
conventionally and on slide. While he is most famous for
writing the song “Play That Funky Music White Boy” when he was
in a disco band called Wild Cherry, Foghat music seems to suit
his personality much better.
At the end of the day, Foghat, once again exceeded expectations
with their live performance – something they have been doing
since the beginning. For Foghat, the road goes on forever,
which is just the way they like it.
www.foghat.net
www.myspace.com/mountainashband
