Guess Who I saw last night doing a concert at Busch Gardens Europe (that's in Virginia, folks).
Yeah, you guessed it. (and if you didn't, you need not wonder why there's no time left for you!)
We have Virginia resident fun passes to Busch Gardens which gives you the whole summer for one admission. We got really good use out of those this year, having gone four or five times each. (Some of the kids go with their friends.) We decided to do BGE for one last time this summer in case it changes drastically with the new ownership. It is our favorite park (in my case, that includes the Disney's) because, aside from being accessible and affordable, it is absolutely beautiful. It proudly boasts of having been voted most beautiful theme park in the US for eighteen straight years.
Anyway, on our way down our youngest son, Micah, who is doing a separate Virginia Beach/Busch Gardens week vacation with his own budding rock band, (confidentially, they are terrible, and proud of it) calls to tell us that Guess Who is doing a concert there on Saturday. How cool is that? I mean, granted, there are only two original band members left in the group (Drummer Garry Peterson and Bassist Jim Kale) but come on it's freakin' Guess Who! So after a surprisingly sedate day at the park (we did all the coasters but the crowds were so bad we opted to see some shows instead of wait in line for lesser rides) we wandered over a few minutes late to the field to see the show.
Strangely enough, having grown up po' I never had the opportunity (OK, the money) to see a rock concert as a kid. So last night's concert was an aging rocker's first rock concert. As we neared the entrance to the field, we could hear the show starting. Their first number was "Star Baby," one of their later hits. There was a pretty good turn out, so we were quite a ways back from the stage, but we could still see them up there and the amps were quite enough so that sound wasn't as issue. No ear-ringing at our distance but my hearing is bad enough already, so I can live without it! The set was an hour long, and it really was a time warp. The instrumentation was, of course, dead on, and even the vocals were pretty darn close to the Guess Who I remember. Their second piece was "Clap for the Wolfman." There were a few of us who recognized the vital importance of clapping during the song, but it just wasn't the same without, well, ya know, the Wolfman. But it started to heat up on their next song, "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature." After that they played such hits as "She's Come Undone," "Share the Land," "Hand Me Down World" and others (though I was slightly disappointed that they didn't do "No Time" or "Raindance"). It was a great show, and I think I lost ten pounds moving to the music. (I know I lost my voice singing along and cheering between songs.) They finished up with a huge buildup into "American Woman." It was incredible. What a blast!
Incidentally, one of the two original members left, I believe it was Garry Peterson, just became a US citizen on Feb 22 of this year. How 'bout that? I understand as part of his naturalization requirements, he had to swear to give up the use of the word "eh."
It was a little disconcerting (there's a bad pun hidden in there somewhere but let's not look for it, 'kay?) to find that my middle son, Robert the only offspringness to accompany us last night, had no idea who Guess Who was. He is usually very well versed in music from several eras because of his performing career (he's the one that was in Japan for Disney). The only song he even knew that they did was their finale (American Woman, of course). He knew it because Lenny Kravitz did a remake in this era. Sheesh. Since he wanted to see "Kinetix," a show more along the lines of what he does, we left before the (first?) encore. As we walked away, we heard them come back onto the stage to perform "These Eyes." Several of us older folks, wandering away on similar errands or trying to beat the park-closing traffic, were singing along as the sound blended into the noise of the younger park patrons rushing from ride-to-ride, slightly amused at the fogies singing the pretty little song. I used up a lot of energy at the concert, and I couldn't hack the drive home. I had to let the son do the second half. We stopped at his place and I slept for hours. I even missed church today. Aging rocker is right. It kind made me reflect that these eyes have seen a lot of love, and that though there may not be No Time left, seasons do change and so did I.
