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It was 1982. The Rolling Stones were the headliner. Journey played a half-hearted set in the rain. George Thorogood wowed the Rich Stadium crowd with a clean, hard rocking set that drove away the rain for Mick and the boys to light it up.
Two years later, the Delaware Destroyer played in Syracuse and I road tripped for the show with my late friend Dave Koch. Ditto the energy, the hits and the atmosphere. Thorogood brought live music to a level few others can.
In 40 years, not much has changed. Thorogood is 75 now and rocked Artpark Tuesday night for a moderately crowded show and hit all the songs you would expect. He omitted nothing tried-and-true from “Drink Alone” to “Bad to the Bone” and “One Bourbon, one Scotch and One Beer” as the crowd sang along on a salubrious night. Late in the show he even hit us with a version of “Gloria” the old Van Morrison classic.
His band was tight with a sax line playing along hard just for fun.
We ended up chatting with a Canadian couple from Niagara Falls and didn’t pay a lot of attention to opener 38 Special. They live on the River and came from Toronto. They mentioned many of their friends will no longer cross the border in protest of our current regime.
I have heard from family and some friends that they miss the old days of free shows at Artpark. We did some of those back in the day but times change.
That said, it remains a great experience. Tickets for Thorogood were $22 each at the box office. Don’t ever deal with Ticketmaster if you can help it.
Also, spend $75 on an Empire Pass for parking. It gets you admission to every state park for no further charge, including Lot 1 in downtown Niagara Falls, Lot 2 on Goat Island and parking at Artpark for which everyone else pays $10.
It is glorious to drive home in less than 10 minutes.
We will be back out Thursday for Todd Rundgren. About a decade ago we saw him at Town Ballroom playing EDM. It was painful because he played what was important to him, not his hits.
Hopefully he makes it up to us Thursday. He still likely experimenting and evolving while Thorogood sticks to the stuff he learned from Bo Diddley because it works.
