John Fogerty @ Bethel Woods Center For The Arts, Bethel, NY

Live Reviews | Sep 1st, 2021

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Date: Friday, August 27th 2021

John Fogerty turned 76 years old in May of this year. 52 years after playing the famed Woodstock Festival in Bethel, NY, he was in Bethel again. Prior to Friday’s concert, his last visit to Bethel Woods was 2 years ago for the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Woodstock Festival.

I’ve been a fan of Fogerty’s music most of my life, like everyone else I was introduced to his music via his former band, Creedence Clearwater Revival. I’ve always loved that raspy voice and dirty swampy guitar and those classic rock and occasional country rock and roll songs.

Taking Fogerty’s aforementioned age into account, you would be forgiven for suspecting that he might not sound as good as he did yesteryear, or have much stage energy-this is John Fogerty, not Mick Jagger, after all. Well, you’d be backing the wrong horse if you thought Fogerty was ” past it.” At 7:45pm, the house lights went down and a short video was shown on the venue screens, soundtracked by CCR classic “Commotion.” Fogerty’s band, which featured his 2 sons, Shane and Tyler Fogerty, waited briefly as John Fogerty ran out to center stage. They immediately tore into “Up around the Bend” which was a surprise as they usually open with another CCR classic, “Travelin’ band.” They followed it up (without missing a beat) with another all time CCR classic, “Green River.”

As the night went on Fogerty seemed to sound better and better. He also seemed to be genuinely happy to be there. He told the audience a funny story about the time CCR played Woodstock 52 years previously, going on stage at 3am and how the words of one dude in the audience inspired him to play for the stoned and sleepy post-grateful dead crowd.

My only complaint, and it’s a small one, is that he didn’t play nearly enough of his solo material. One of his best solo albums, 2009s Revival, didn’t get a single one of it’s tunes played, “Creedence Song” or “Don’t You Wish It Were True” would have went down a treat. Still, you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

His most recent song “Weeping In The Promised Land” was a standout from the night and it was positioned perfectly in the setlist to break up the rocking and rolling. It was great to hear that Fogerty still has his finger on the moral pulse of America after all these years.

Setlist:
Up Around the Bend
(Creedence Clearwater Revival song)

Green River
(Creedence Clearwater Revival song)

Susie Q
(Dale Hawkins cover)

Born on the Bayou
(Creedence Clearwater Revival song)

Who’ll Stop the Rain
(Creedence Clearwater Revival song)

Lookin’ Out My Back Door
(Creedence Clearwater Revival song)

Lodi
(Creedence Clearwater Revival song)

Run Through the Jungle
(Creedence Clearwater Revival song)

Hot Rod Heart

Weeping in the Promised Land

I Heard It Through the Grapevine
(Gladys Knight & The Pips cover)

Travelin’ Band
(Creedence Clearwater Revival song)

Keep On Chooglin’
(Creedence Clearwater Revival song)

Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
(Creedence Clearwater Revival song)

Down on the Corner
(Creedence Clearwater Revival song)

Centerfield

The Old Man Down the Road

Fortunate Son
(Creedence Clearwater Revival song)

Encore
Bad Moon Rising
(Creedence Clearwater Revival song)

Proud Mary
(Creedence Clearwater Revival song)

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