Before there was Rush, Triumph, Loverboy, Bryan Adams, Anvil, Voivod, and, uh, Celine Dion, there was The Guess Who. When I say this band singlehandedly put the Canadian rock scene on the map, it’s no exaggeration. They were the first Canadian act to ever go gold here in the US of A, and that was way back in the days when Dick Clark handed out such awards, per frontman Burton Cummings. To say that Cummings, 78, and guitarist Randy Bachman, 82, have been showered with nearly all the accolades that come with boasting a nearly 60 year career would be an understatement. Gold records quickly turned platinum, and platinum records led to a seemingly endless hit parade, which was celebrated last night in Chicago on the band’s aptly branded Takin’ It Back Tour: A jaunt that doubles as both a retrospective celebration and a triumphant victory lap for these living legends.
For those who haven’t been keeping score, Cummings and Bachman were entrenched in a highly publicized, decades-long legal battle against their former Guess Who bandmates who’d hijacked the moniker, allowing a revolving door of hired gun musicians to tour under the name and play the hits they had nothing to do with, while bassist Jim Kale and drummer Garry Peterson stayed at home and collected the check. Let’s not kid ourselves; any band calling themselves The Guess Who without Cummings and Bachman is laughable at best and flat-out offensive at worst. For it was Cummings’ powerhouse R&B flavored vocals and Bachman’s anthemic hard rocking riffs (something he’d expand upon with boogie metal barbarians, Bachman-Turner Overdrive), coupled with a knack for poppy hooks, that defined the band’s hard to define sound. Both of these trademarks were on full display for an eager, nostalgia-driven audience on a piping hot night at Huntington Bank Pavilion, located on Northerly Island against Lake Michigan.
Cummings wistfully waxed poetic on he and the band’s lengthy history with the Windy City. After all, it was back in the summer of ’69, that the aforementioned Bryan Adams would later sing of, when The Guess Who recorded their magnum opus, American Woman, at the old RCA Mid-America Recording Center on Wacker Drive. The band were turned on by the midwestern metropolis digs so much that they stuck around to record its follow-up, Share the Land (1970), there as well. Songs from both albums, staples of the classic rock canon, reverberated off the waves of Lake Michigan and the sentimental sing-alongs of largely boomers (though myself and a handful of other young(er) rockers held it down for the 60 and under set). “American Woman”, “No Sugar Tonight / New Mother Nature”, “Share the Land”, “No Time”, “Hand Me Down World”: The last time Chicago saw this many hits was the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre.
Circling back to the band’s “hard to define” sound, many would lazily characterize The Guess Who as “classic rock”. Of course, us metalheads love our absurd subgenres, fusions, and so forth, so when Cummings kept referring to his catalog as “straight-ahead rock n’ roll”, I took notice. As the night progressed, he’d add descriptors, at one point settling on “straight-ahead toe-tappin’ Canadian rock n’ roll”. Straight-ahead? No doubt. Toe-tappin’? My big toe on my left foot is asleep as I type this. Canadian? Absolutely, and I still can’t necessarily explain it, but there’s no way this band could’ve come from L.A., New York, or any other pocket of America for that matter (Perhaps it’s time to phone a friend and call on Martin Popoff to better explain this concept). Rock n’ roll? Damn straight!
As if celebrating their dynamic catalog of rockers, ballads (gotta shoutout “These Eyes” and “Laughing”), and deep tracks (“Guns Guns Guns” and “Proper Stranger” come to mind) wasn’t enough, Cummings and Bachman went the extra mile, incorporating highlights of their post-Guess Who careers as well. For Cummings, it was “My Own Way to Rock”: The toe-tappin’-ist toe-tapper of the evening, complimenting the boogie-driven frenzy of songs like “Star Baby” and “Bus Rider”. For Bachman, we were treated to a triple play of BTO anthems: “Let It Ride” (the most metal moment of the evening, gallop riffs and all), “You Ain’t See Nothin’ Yet”, and “Takin’ Care of Business”, the latter of which shockingly served as the grand finale for the night’s festivities.
Four dates into what is undoubtedly their biggest American tour in decades, The Guess Who continue to thrill audiences like it’s 1970 all over again. For first generation fans, it’s a chance to relive the magic of their youth. For second and third generation fans (like myself) who weren’t alive for the first time around, it’s an opportunity to finally experience these classic Canadian hymns in all their glory. Look folks, if you walk away from this show dissatisfied, you don’t like rock n’ roll or fun, period. I’ll let the late, great Lester Bangs, who I can’t help but imagine Cummings was paying homage to by wearing an old school Creem shirt, close us out: This show was “the equivalent of a Canuck snowstorm, blasting your face with the cold reality that The Guess Who are indeed a credible and capable rock n’ roll band.”
Setlist
- “Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon”
- “Proper Stranger”
- “Hand Me Down World”
- “These Eyes”
- “Albert Flasher”
- “Let It Ride” (Bachman-Turner Overdrive song)
- “Clap for the Wolfman”
- “Laughing”
- “Guns Guns Guns”
- “Undun”
- “Star Baby”
- “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” (Bachman-Turner Overdrive song)
- “My Own Way to Rock” (Burton Cummings song)
- “Bus Rider”
- “American Woman”
- “No Sugar Tonight / New Mother Nature”
- “No Time”
Encore
- “Share the Land”
- “Takin’ Care of Business” (Bachman-Turner Overdrive song)
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