quote:Originally posted by Bytown Rick:quote:Originally posted by Seaquam:
Saw Roger Hodgson, frontman and songwriter for Supertramp a long time ago, at the showroom of a local casino last night, a nice-sized venue for the big sound his group puts out.
He was good, not great. About half the 2.5 hour set were Supertramp hits which got the crowd excited, while the other half were songs from his solo albums, and I think I might have recognized one. Hodgson admitted that some of the songs he had selected were pretty obscure (one was from an album released only in France, though the lyrics were in English; not sure why that one didn't sell well), but he provided some very interesting background for almost every song, usually explaining how he wrote it, or why it had some special significance to him.
The venue (River Rock Casino) has a really good sound system so everything was crystal clear. The band consisted of 3 keyboards (Hodgson alternated between keyboard, piano, and guitar), drums, and a really good sax/clarinet/recorder player who stole the show (he is one of many great musicians who grew up and was trained in London, Ontario).
All in all, a nostalgic evening of music that I used to like.
He is playing Ottawa next week at the National Arts Centre. Looking forward to it.
My experience was similar to Seaquam's. But I will reveal my bias by saying that it was better than good. The National Arts Centre is a great location for this type of performance. And the tribute to John Lennon (Across the Universe) was stunning.
At times the instrumentals were a bit loud relative to the vocals. But that was the only negative part of the show. The house rocked -- oldies totally enjoying the oldies.