Wicomico Youth & Civic Center
Salisbury, Md. • November 1, 2013
After a few festival dates in September, John Fogerty brought his 2013 Fall tour to Salisbury, Md., for a 28-song, two and a quarter hour show that drew from both his solo career and Creedence Clearwater Revival Band. His touring band is a talented group consisting of John’s son Shane Fogerty on rhythm guitar, Kenny Aronoff on drums, James Lomenzo on bass and Bob Malone on keyboards. As the band took the stage with John sporting his trademark flannel shirt and denim jeans, the band opened with "Hey Tonight", "Born on the Bayou" and "Bootleg" just to get the mostly older and seated crowd in the mood for the night. He did announce that at tonight’s show they will be playing the CCR album Bayou Country in its entirety, but not in order, and a few covers thrown in. I like to name all the songs of the show but there are just too many to mention; but I will name a few of the hits and tidbits that he mentioned.
"Good Golly Miss Molly," a Little Richard cover, came early in the set as did "Joy of My Life," a song he wrote and dedicated to his wife saying if it hadn't been for her, he probably would be dead by now. Then he told a story of when CCR had been invited to play Woodstock, but they had not been told they were going to follow the Grateful Dead who, because of an equipment failure, didn't go on until midnight. Consequently, CCR finally made their debut at 2:30 am. By this time the crowd had been naked and asleep, except somewhere out in the crowd a lighter flickered and a voice said, "don't worry John, we're with ya;" and for the rest of their set they played for that one guy. It was interesting that the events of that night actually led to the recording of "Who'll Stop the Rain,"the next song they played for us. Next up was "I Heard it Through The Grapevine," a Smokey Robinson cover, and his new hit "Mystic Highway." To finish out the set they played "Down on the Corner," "Centerfield," "Up Around the Bend" and "Fortunate Son" to the massive smoke and confetti cannons sprewing both over the venue.
After a five-minute break, and I do have to say I think that was one of the shortest breaks I've ever seen, they returned for the two-song encore, "Bad Moon Rising" and "Proud Mary," to end the night. Now this was my first time seeing John Fogerty but I will say that he and his band put on one heck of a concert, playing one big hit after another. I would definitely go see him again if he tours again sometime. The only sad thing about the concert was that it was not even close to a sellout and I'm sure if more locals had attended, they would have enjoyed it just as much as I did.
– Gary Crouthamel, concert photo journalist