Tuesday Night Concerts at the Artpark outdoor stage have become as much a social event as a great place to hear some live music. The full house present last Tuesday enjoyed the warm summer night with the venerable Blue Rodeo. For over thirty years, the songwriting duo of Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor have pumped out the kind of cool tunes made for this kind of evening. The Canadian country-rock superstars have played the Buffalo-Niagara area more than 40 times in their long career. Last appearing at Artpark in 2014, their set was a short one. Tonight they brought a full book of 17 songs for this balmy night.
Keelor, sporting a full gray beard, shared the front row of the stage with the lean-looking Cuddy and newcomer guitarist Colin Cripps. The Cuddy/Keelor team shared lead vocals with the rest of the band, Mike Bogulski on keyboards, former Wilco
sideman Bob Egan on pedal steel guitar, Bazil Donovan on bass guitar, and drummer Glenn Milchem.
Keelor has developed some hearing problems over the last few years and it has limited his singing. He did bring out that wonderful raspy voice for a few songs while Cripps has filled in admirably in his place.
Blue Rodeo have been around long enough to have punk, country and western, and pop influences. Evident in many of their sons is a vocal trade off between two or more band members. Thousands of fans were singing along with “Rose Coloured Glasses,” “Til I Am Myself Again,” “Lost Together,” and the final song “Hasn’t Hit Me Hit” The crowd participation is a great feature of seeing Blue Rodeo live, everyone having a great time and enjoying themselves, their friends and some great music.
Setlist:
What Am I Doing Here
One More Night
Now and Forever
Rose Coloured Glasses
Disappear
Tell Me Again
Cynthia
New Morning Sun
Diamond Mine
After the Rain
Fools Like You
Dark Angel
5 Days in May
Lost Together
Encore:
Try
It Could Happen to You
Hasn’t Hit Me Yet
We would like to thank Maria Hays for the credentials to review the show.
