Just Saw Eric Burdon and The Animals in Concert~ · 12:31am Dec 12th, 2015
I drove a few hours, burned my tongue on coffee, and waited another three hours for the show to begin, complete with having the worst seats in the house. But it was fun!
Eric Burdon and The Animals may be from the 60s, but they sure know what they're doing. Right from the start, the performance was a madhouse of sound. It was loud! It took place in a small indoor pavilion, so everyone was really close to the stage. The reason my seat was bad was because it was right behind a multilayer keyboard stand, cutting off the rest of the stage from view. On the flip side, the organ player was amazing. Seriously. Where most rock bands give guitars solos, all the songs had organ solos instead. The keyboardist would constantly flip between his three layers of boards, often making quick setting adjustments to change the sound, and it was done seamlessly. He was easily the second star of the show, second to Eric himself.
Eric may not be blessed with the deep, soulful voice of his youth anymore, but he certainly makes up for it in charisma and presentation. He still belts out high notes and talks to the audience. Heck, on two occasions he told a joke-story as part of some songs. He's definitely got the same spunk he's always had. He just loves that rock-funk style.
As you would expect, they did all their classic songs and even some from Eric's second band, War. I actually wasn't sure whether or not they'd do those, but it was a pleasant surprise. They performed everything from "Spill The Wine" to "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and, of course, "House of the Rising Sun." In his typical fashion, the varied widely from the studio versions whether it be changing the genre or adding in completely new verses. "House of the Rising Sun" for instance shifted to a 4/4 swing beat for one verse. Simply put, it was a solid, awesome performance overall. I can't decide whether my favorite was "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" or "We Gotta Get Out of This Place." The feel and strings intro of the former was epic while the latter had the best organ solo all night. His hands were a blur!
I think I was the youngest person there! It was full of people in their 40s to 70s. Fun!
'Tis be the year of concerts! I saw Mike Love's Beach Boys, The Animals, and I have Mötley Crüe in a few weeks. Expect a blog about that as well~
This is a coincidence. I went to see Handel's Messiah last night.