While plenty of acts go through petty squabbles after disbanding, Creedence Clearwater Revival is a prime example of how questionable business decisions and lingering bad blood can tarnish the legacy of an otherwise sterling career. Less like an amicable breakup and more like a messy, never-ending divorce, CCR’s dissolution in 1972 has been followed by a succession of sometimes frivolous lawsuits, which have continually loomed over any discussion of their music. As recently as last year, frontman and primary songwriter John Fogerty was still trading legal salvos with his former bandmates, who’ve long toured under the knockoff name Creedence Clearwater Revisited. Yet while the courtroom drama is likely to continue, Fogerty seems pretty happy with his work these days, and that air of positivity showed during Sunday night’s sold-out performance at the Riverside Theater.
There was no opening act to speak of here, but then again the massive crowd, comprised almost entirely of gray-haired white folks, some with their adult children in tow, wasn’t really in need of any warming up, rose-tinted nostalgia apparently doing the trick nicely. Considering his current road trip has been dubbed the “1969” tour, Fogerty seems committed to giving the people what they want, and in this case what the people really want is a shitload of Creedence’s most classic cuts. After starting off, appropriately enough, with “Travelin’ Band,” the rest of the 100-or-so-minute set was dominated by the kind of songs that have sold countless greatest hits compilations: “Proud Mary,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” “Down on the Corner,” “Fortunate Son,” the list goes on and on.
Here and there were a couple quasi-deep cuts, like a lively workout of “Ramble Tamble,” as well as some solo material, memorably “Centerfield” played on a baseball bat-shaped guitar, and of course the obligatory new stuff, namely a few forgettable numbers from 2013’s Wrote a Song for Everyone. These digressions were few and far between, however, and it was never long before Fogerty returned to ubiquitously recognizable CCR songs. Thankfully his backing band, made up of his son and a handful of hired guns, mostly did them justice. For his part, Fogerty was in fine form. His voice, always twangy and rough hewn, may be a little worse for wear, but he can certainly still shred his way through any iconic solo. For all his troubles, it’s good to see he’s kept on chooglin’.
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