Its always been a dream of mine to see CCR. They’ve always had this mystique behind them that just makes it seem like there was no world of music before they were around. Seriously, they have so many hits in the short amount of time they were together it truly is insane. And its just a distinct classic sound, it really does blow my mind that John Fogerty is only 70.
Jake came through in the clutch and offered me a free ticket to see Fogerty at the Chateau Ste Michelle Winery. Well I should say Paige came through since she ended up bailing so Jake had the extra ticket to begin with. Anyways I had my reservations. First off, its only John Fogerty (not the full CCR band), 2nd he’s super old, and third it’s at a winery. But it’s free and I’m easy, so I said yes.
Jake kindly drove all the way there. We pulled up to park (which was completely full) and Jake just drove past all the security to the “reserved” area and parked. Easy enough! We even crossed some barricades and red tape and went in the back way. Didn’t get to meet Fogerty though.
So anyways we’re finally in this joint and it’s wayyyyy fancier and nicer than we were expecting. I mean I don’t know what we were expecting since we knew it was a winery, but this was..uhh…not our scene. Lots of old folks. We even saw people eating salad, AT A ROCK CONCERT. Everyone apparently got there after their early morning mall walks because the place was packed.
Me and Jake went immediately to the wine bar and bought 2 bottles which we would then drink from the bottle the rest of the concert. we attempted to find a cool spot but literally everybody had claimed huge amounts of land with their picnic baskets and chairs and coolers and what-have-yous. We brought nothing so we made our way back to the dumpsters. That place sucked so then we went to the very, very back. This was a much better spot and actually not too bad of a view. We could drink our wine from the bottle in relative peace and also gander at the peacock that was randomly walking around the concert.
Alright so nows about the time John Fogerty hits the stage and right away we knew it was going to be a good show. He sounded amazing! To top it off he was even playing CCR. I was worried since it was a solo show he’d only stick to his solo stuff but fortunately I was wrong.
He was running around stage like a wild man. It was cool to see. His crowd interaction was great and he even had some cool stories to tell the crowd. He held up his guitar and told a cool story about how it had been stolen back in the early 70’s. Apparently his wife found it in 2010 , bought it, and gave it back to him as a birthday present. Pretty neat! If it had been my guitar that would have been stolen I would have fallen apart, can’t imagine how great it must of been to be reunited with it.
About halfway through the show he brought up his kids on stage. One son plays guitar and the other is a definite front man. He came out in an all red (looked to be velvet) 70’s one piece suit and was jumping around and singing with his dad. I thought that was pretty cool. Apparently their in a band called Hardy Har. I haven’t listened to them yet but I can’t imagine its terrible with a legend as their father.
Anyways, was a great time and I’d definitely be down to see him again, although if its at the same venue next time I’m getting there early and bringing lawn chairs. Here’s a vid (that I didn’t take) from the same concert!