July 9-12, 2008 in Walker, MN
By Chris Murphy
For the fourth year in a row, my wife and I made the 9 ½ hour
trek north to Moondance Jam in Walker, MN. What started in
1992 featuring regional bands over two nights has blossomed into
the premier classic rock festival in the US that takes place
during four nights in July every year. While other festivals
have come and gone and still others have changed their format to
draw in younger fans, Moondance Jam has stuck to its guns and
has continued to bring the best classic rock to northern
Minnesota. While the first jam had around 500 area music fans
and friends of owners Bill & Kathy Bieloh, the jam today has
close to 20,000 people per day from all over the country and
even a few from England. Back in 1992, the jam had two nights
of regional bands such as The Classics and The Blenders. Today
it features four nights of nationally touring acts such as Def
Leppard, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Now
known as “The Campin’ and Jammin’ Event of the Summer,” the site
also features over 300 acres of camping surrounding the site
with many campers arriving the night before the music starts to
reunite with friends they have now camped and partied with for
years.
As soon as you enter the jam site, you can tell your experience
will be different than just a rock concert. The staff is
extremely friendly and it is easy to tell they enjoy their job.
The fact that I have seen many of the same workers at the jam
each of the last four years is a tribute to what great people
the Bieloh’s are. The next thing to notice is row after row of
campers all enjoying themselves, some sitting around talking
while others are playing games. Many even have bar-themed
campsites and invite others to come and join in their
festivities. Several of these campsites participate in the
traditional camping contest that is hosted and judged by the
Bieloh’s. According to Bill Bieloh, judging the camping contest
is one of his favorite parts of the jam. The camping area now
has over 300 electrical campsites and over 1800 primitive
campsites. The one thing everyone has in common is a smile on
their face. While I don’t camp, I have found that the
campgrounds are a huge part of the jam and a daily stroll
through camping is a must. The only problem is you might end up
having so much fun you miss some of the music.
Not a camper? No problem. There are many hotels and resorts in
the area, some even providing transportation to the jam. It is
wise to book early though as many people stay at the same place
year after year. While there is pay parking on-site, a better
option is the free park-and-ride offered by the jam from nearby
Northern Lights Casino. For those with a VIP ticket, parking
beside the concert venue is provided.
Inside the venue there are three areas for music, the Lazy Moon
Stage, the Saloon Stage, and the Main Stage. The Lazy Moon
Stage features mostly acoustic singers and is located inside The
Lazy Moon Backstage Bar and Grill. The bar, added last year,
provides patrons with a true backstage view of the bands as they
prepare to take the main stage. The Saloon Stage features
mostly regional bands and starts at 2pm every day and continues
late into the night after the last Main Stage performance. The
Main Stage begins each day at 3pm usually with a regional band
followed by four national touring acts that go two hours apart
starting at 5pm. With the coordination between the saloon and
the main stage, there is rarely a minute that passes without
hearing classic rock music.
For food and beverage, there are many options besides eating and
drinking in the campgrounds. The Lazy Moon Backstage Bar &
Grill features a full menu throughout the day, starting in the
morning with a breakfast buffet and bloody Mary bar. Throughout
the concert venue are a variety of food stands offering
everything from tacos to onion blossoms to pork chops on a
stick. What I have found to be the best option is the VIP area
which offers free drinks all day starting at 2pm, appetizers and
salads from 3:30pm to 11pm, and a full meal every evening. The
VIP is run by an excellent staff who work tirelessly to truly
make you feel like you are a VIP.
Something about Moondance Jam always brings out the best from
the bands as well. Perhaps the best feature for the bands
performing on the main stage is the fact that anyone can make
their way to the front of the stage. While other festivals
reserve their seats in front to those in VIP, Moondance Jam has
a sand pit that stretches the entire length of the new,
multi-million dollar stage that is open to anyone. This allows
the most die-hard fans to get as close as they want to their
favorite artist and provides a great deal of energy to the
performer on stage. Those in VIP are still treated to a great
covered seating area beside the stage and even have the
opportunity to watch a portion (usually four songs) of each
band’s set from a raised stage box on the side of the stage.
Yes, that is right, you basically get to watch from on the stage
in what is one of the most incredible views I have ever seen at
a concert.
The Music – Day 1
The first day of music featured a mix of bands that had never
been seen together on the same stage. The first national band
to take the stage was Otis Day & the Knights from Animal House
fame. Front man DeWayne “Otis my man!” Jesse reprises his
legendary role from the movie with a great backing band that can
play a wide variety of genres of music. Today the band played
perfectly to its audience by featuring a wide range of classic
tunes. Early in the set the band played The Spencer Davis
Group’s “Gimme Some Lovin,” The Rolling Stone’s “Jumpin’ Jack
Flash” and “Satisfaction,” Barrett Strong’s “Money (That’s What
I Want),” and The Beatle’s “Come Together,”all of which had the
crowd singing and dancing. After finally playing a song from
Animal House, “Shama Lama Ding Dong,” the band performed their
best song of the night, BTO’s “Takin’ Care of Business,” which
featured an extended jam. While Jesse’s voice is not what it
was from the movie, his backing band is very talented and his
female backup singer had a great voice and was easy on the
eyes. After leaving the stage to cheers for an encore, the band
obliged and returned to play “Shout,” the song that has allowed
Jesse the opportunity to still tour 30 years after the debut of
Animal House. Scattered throughout the audience were many fans
wearing togas in honor of the movie. I was surprised by the
band’s performance and it was a great way to get Sizzlin’ 17
started.
Next up was Led Zepagain, a tribute to Led Zeppelin that is
actually endorsed by Jimmy Page. While Wednesday was originally
planned to be an entire night of tribute acts, a change in plans
resulted in Led Zepagain to be the only true tribute band of the
night. While it is unlikely we will ever see a reunion tour of
Led Zeppelin, Led Zepagain is an excellent recreation of the
music of the legendary band, complete with outfits from the era
and guitarist Steve Zukowsky playing guitar with a violin bow.
The band opened with “Rock ‘n Roll” and “Good Times, Bad Times”
before playing my favorite Zeppelin song, “Ramble On.” While
the band didn’t play it as well as Page and Plant did when I
heard them back in 1996 (who could?), I still enjoyed the song
and felt lucky to hear it on the Moondance stage. The band
stuck to the Zeppelin songs that everyone wanted to hear as they
continued through stellar versions of “Black Dog,” “Kashmir,”
and “Communication Breakdown” before playing their best song of
the night “Dazed and Confused.” Next was the classic “Stairway
to Heaven,” complete with line “Does anyone remember laughter?”
from the movie The Song Remains the Same. Closing the set was
“Whole Lotta Love,” which proved vocalist Swan Montgomery has
the chops to give justice to Robert Plant. After seeing the
band and the great reception the audience gave them, I began to
wonder if an opening night of tribute bands may have been a
great way to start the jam.
The final two bands of the night were bands both without the
singers that made them famous, Big Brother & the Holding Company
and Creedence Clearwater Revisited. While Big Brother is
missing the late Janis Joplin, the band still features three
original members, bassist Peter Albin, guitarist Sam Andrew, and
drummer Dave Getz. The band has toured the last few years with
several singers playing the role of Joplin and released a live
album in 2007 titled “Hold Me” with Sophia Ramos on vocals.
While I had hoped to hear Ramos as she has an amazing voice on
the album, tonight’s vocals were handled very well by Marie
Bridget Davies. The band performed excellent versions of their
classics “Down on Me,” “Combination of the Two,” and “Women is
Losers.” However, it was their new song “Hold Me” that was the
highlight of their show for me. It is unfortunate with the way
radio is today that it is unlikely you will hear this song as I
feel it could be a hit today just as it could have been 40 years
ago when the band first got its start. The band also played
their best known hit with Joplin, “Piece of My Heart,” and
finished with a strange selection, Joplin’s solo hit “Me and
Bobby McGee.” The talk after the concert was the excellent
voice of Davies and how surprised people were that they enjoyed
the performance.
Creedence Clearwater Revisited finished the night off in style
by playing excellent renditions of most of Creedence Clearwater
Revival’s hits. Revisited is led by the original rhythm section
of CCR with Doug “Cosmo” Clifford on drums and Stu Cook on
bass. Playing the part of John Fogerty is John Tristao, who has
been with Revisited since their inception. While no one would
confuse the bald and stocky Tristao with Fogerty by looking at
him, close your eyes and listen and they are hard to tell
apart. While many CCR fans refuse to accept this version of the
band, I thought they did an excellent job finishing the first
day of the jam and had the crowd singing late into the night. I
applaud the fact that Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s Clifford and
Cook continue to tour and present these classic songs to the
fans. Highlights for me included “Who’ll Stop the Rain,”
“Fortunate Son,” and my favorite CCR song “Long as I Can See the
Light.”
On paper, the lineup for this first day seemed very strange.
But in the end, it worked as a much larger crowd than I expected
came to support the fact that great music was on the stage and
there is no better place to hear great music than at Moondance
Jam.
Day 2
The second day started early for me as the much-anticipated area
80’s tribute band Hairball took the main stage at 3pm. While I
had seen them in the saloon a few years ago at Moondance and was
not overly impressed, I decided to give them another try and I
am glad I did. Hairball stormed the stage with a singer dressed
as Dee Snider from Twisted Sister, playing both “I Wanna Rock”
and “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” As the chord to the latter song
was finishing, a new singer came out in full makeup as Paul
Stanley from Kiss and the band lit into “Detroit Rock City,”
followed by “Strutter.” Next up, the first singer returned as
Joe Elliott from Def Leppard and the band played “Rock of Ages”
and “Pour Some Sugar on Me.” The band finished their set with
their second singer performing AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells,” “Back in
Black,” and “You Shook Me All Night Long.” The crowd loved it
and packed the saloon for their sets later as well. I caught a
little of their first set in the jam-packed saloon and heard
them perform excellent versions of songs from Loverboy, Bon Jovi,
and Whitesnake.
Next up was one of my favorite bands of all time, The Guess
Who. While only two original members remain in the group, the
band was one of the highlights from Moondance Jam 15 and a big
crowd came out to hear Canada’s legendary rockers. Once again,
the band didn’t disappoint and put on one of my favorite shows
of the entire jam. They also played one of the longest sets,
not only playing their hits but delving deeper into their
catalogue with songs like openers “Bus Rider” and “Star Baby”
and one of my favorites “Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon.” The
highlight of their set was when they played the hits “Laughing,”
“Undun,” and “No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature” together
mid-set. The band’s appearance had been in doubt after lead
singer Carl Dixon was in a near fatal car accident in April but
the band brought Derek Sharp aboard to fill in and Sharp ended
up being one of the highlights of the jam, especially for the
ladies. While only drummer Garry Peterson and bassist Jim Kale
are left from the original lineup, Laurie MacKenzie was
excellent on guitar and Leonard Shaw does a great job playing
the keyboard and flute and even the voice of Wolfman Jack on
“Clap for the Wolfman.” The Guess Who is underrated in the US,
perhaps because of their Canadian roots and revolving lineup.
However, the Moondance Jam crowd has embraced the band two of
the last three years and I hope more of the US soon follows
suit.
Sammy Hagar and the Waboritas were next up in one of the most
anticipated shows of the jam. Even though he technically was
not the headliner for the night and played an early 7pm slot, he
easily brought in the biggest crowd of the day and put on the
best show I have ever seen at Moondance. As the giant red
curtain with Hagar’s image was dropped, the band tore into “I
Can’t Drive 55,” followed by two more solo Sammy cuts, “There’s
Only One Way to Rock,” and “I’ll Fall in Love Again.” The band
played the best set list I have yet to see Sammy play. Included
were four Van Halen songs, “Top of the World,” “Why Can’t This
Be Love,” “Dreams,” and the encore “Finish What Ya Started.”
Unfortunately “Dreams” was played entirely acoustic as I think
an electric guitar ending to that song would be amazing. No one
played the crowd better than Sammy either. At one point he
announced he had talked with owner Bill Bieloh and next year he
would be returning to Moondance Jam and he would play for free
and sponsor the jam with his Cabo Wabo Tequila. The crowd went
crazy. Sammy even threw in a Montrose song, the well-received
“Rock Candy,” although I would have rather heard “Bad Motor
Scooter.” He followed this song by discussing his current
weekend gigs with Kenny Chesney. Chesney told him he was happy
to have him on tour because he would be able to hear “Eagles
Fly” every night. When Hagar told him he no longer played that
song, Chesney basically told him he had to play it to get the
gig. He then played the song, which was his best performance of
the night. About the only weak song in his set was “Serious
Juju,” which I think should be replaced by the rarely played
“Give to Live.” The stage setup was also very elaborate, with a
light show that unfortunately couldn’t be seen in the daylight
and his patented risers for fans to rock on stage with the band
during their show. It is hard to believe that Sammy is
celebrating turning 60 as he was the most energetic of any
performer during the jam. As a performer, I would have hated to
follow Sammy’s show.
That task was left to Boz Scaggs, the Grammy nominated blues
singer/guitarist, who is most remembered for his 1976 album Silk
Degrees, which was backed by Toto. A great thing about
Moondance is fans can come and go as they please back to their
campsite for a drink or into the saloon or Lazy Moon for more
music. Many fans chose to do this after Sammy’s show and didn’t
make it back for Scaggs’ performance. Those who did return were
treated to a solid, but not spectacular, set of Boz’s music.
Highlights of the set were “JoJo” and the crowd sing-along “Lido
Shuffle.” His backing band and two female backup sings are a
solid unit that you can tell has been together for a long time
and Scaggs’ voice has changed very little over the last 30
years. Personally, I would have liked to hear the more upbeat
“Breakdown Dead Ahead” instead of the extended “Hercules,” which
I believe would be fine at a Scaggs’ solo show, but not at a
festival with casual fans who largely want to hear songs they
know.
Finishing the night were Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s Crosby,
Stills, and Nash, who Bieloh was most pleased to be able to have
onstage this year. Making their first appearance at Moondance
Jam, the band did a great job of hitting the majority of their
hits from their huge catalogue of songs. It was evident on the
opener, Stephen Stills’ solo hit “Love the One You’re With,”
that Stills’ voice is nowhere near what it once was, but his
guitar playing is still top-notch. His guitar solos were some
of the best heard during the jam. Highlights of the show were
excellent versions of “Southern Cross,” “Marrakesh Express,” and
the Crosby-penned “Almost Cut My Hair.” It is worth noting that
he has yet to cut his hair. The band also performed the classic
“For What It’s Worth,” from Stills’ days with Buffalo
Springfield. Unfortunately, the signature beginning portion of
the song was almost unrecognizable, but the band did pull it
together about half way through the song. The band also stuck
to its political roots with a solid rendition of Nash’s
“Military Madness.” Crosby got a nice cheer during the encore
by announcing teachers should get paid ten times what they do
before performing “Teach Your Children.” Overall the
performance was okay but in no way measured up to the bar set by
Sammy earlier in the evening.
Day 3
After regional band Mountain Ash finished their 3pm set on the
main stage, Mother Nature decided to take over the jam for
awhile. As storms headed toward the site, staff and security
did a great job of going through campsites and the concert area
alerting everyone to take cover until the storm passed.
Fortunately, besides some wind and rain, severe weather never
materialized and the music was allowed to continue, albeit over
an hour late. Unfortunately, this led to shorter sets by the
bands so headliners Poison could still go on close to 11pm.
Great White finally took the stage after the rain to an extended
opening of “Call It Rock and Roll” before lead singer Jack
Russell took the stage to cheers and started singing. The band,
now touring with almost the entire lineup that made them famous
over 20 years ago, played an entertaining set of bluesy rock.
Russell looks like he has conquered some of the demons he has
dealt with in recent years and his voice still sounds great.
The song that made them famous, “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,”
actually was their weakest song of the day. The band is at its
best on slow, building rockers like “Rock Me” and “House of
Broken Love,” which was their best song of the day.
Unfortunately the band did not cover their usual Led Zeppelin
song, perhaps because of time constraints. Their live acoustic
cover of “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” is one of the best covers of
Led Zeppelin I have ever heard. While their future was in
serious doubt after the 2003 Rhode Island tragedy, the band
seems to have a renewed energy and got the day started very
well.
Sebastian Bach, original lead singer of Skid Row, was next to
take the stage and played the loudest show I have ever heard at
Moondance Jam. His first song was a cover of Aerosmith’s “Back
in the Saddle,” from his latest album Angel Down. The album
sounds a lot like Skid Row’s Slave to the Grind and Bach even
got Axl Rose to sing on several songs for the album. The intro
to his new song “Stuck Inside” even had a short snippet of him
singing “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” While I thoroughly enjoyed Bach’s
set, it was little heavier than most are used to at the jam. He
swings his microphone over his head with such force I was afraid
it might detach and injure someone. He did scream a little
much, especially on the new song “American Metalhead,” but his
versions of his Skid Row era songs were great. He also
committed the crime no lead singer wants to do about half way
through his set when he yelled “We love you Wisconsin!” and
heard nearly complete silence from the Minnesota crowd. They
forgave him in no time though. Bach has an excellent voice and
his strength is actually in slower songs like “18 & Life” and
his new song “By Your Side,” which, unfortunately, he cut off
after a few chords because his time ran short. Luckily he
didn’t have an attitude about having to leave the stage and
instead went right into a great version of the Skid Row hit “I
Remember You.” His last tune was the Skid Row anthem “Youth
Gone Wild,” which had the entire sand pit chanting throughout
the chorus.
Next up were 70’s rockers Sweet, who have just reunited behind
original bass player Steve Priest and are touring the US for the
first time in years. While Priest is the only original member
in this version of Sweet (the only other living original member
Andy Scott has a version in the UK as well), the band did not
sound like they had only six shows under their belt together.
They performed a nice set of Sweet tunes to near perfection and
had the crowd surprised at how many songs they knew by the
band. Because of the lack of touring, the band has become
somewhat forgotten in the US and it is easy to forget they had
string of six top 20 hits in the 70’s with songs like “Little
Willy,” “Ballroom Blitz,” and “Fox on the Run” that still get
regular radio airplay today. The band was even bigger in the UK
with 15 top 40 hits in the 70’s. The band took to the stage
with their hit “Action” and ran through nearly their entire
catalogue of hits before the night was through. Lead singer Joe
Retta did a great job of singing the songs like the fans
remember them, even though he had obviously had to change the
band member names spoken on the intro to “Ballroom Blitz.” Lead
guitarist Stuart Smith also did a nice job in place of Scott.
Their strongest songs of the night were “The 6-teens” and their
last hit, 1978’s “Love is Like Oxygen.” About the only song
that didn’t work was the new song “Sweet Dream,” from Priest’s
latest solo album which few in the crowd were familiar with.
The crowd had the most fun during perhaps their best know song,
the sing-along “Fox on the Run.”
After Sweet’s set I headed over to the saloon stage to check out
the Heart tribute band Bad Animals. The band played one of my
favorite saloon stage sets last year and this year were promoted
to closer in the saloon. Not only does the band do excellent
renditions of all the Heart classics, but they also look the
part too with a blonde guitarist and brunette singer who look
and sound great. The band played a short set because of the
rain delay but did stellar versions of “Who Will You Run To” and
“Magic Man,” among others. The band hails from the Minneapolis
area and will be playing all over Minnesota this summer. They
are definitely worth checking out.
Finishing the night was one of the features of this year’s jam,
Poison. While Poison played the jam two years ago as a last
minute replacement for The New Cars, this year they were the
band pictured on all the billboards and advertisements and
expectations were high. The band did not disappoint in front of
probably the biggest crowd of the jam. Poison opened with “Look
What the Cat Dragged In,” the title track from their debut
album, and continued running through the hits and even a few
rare songs. “Cry Tough” is being played regularly on this tour
for the first time in 20 year according to lead singer Bret
Michaels. Thankfully, the band was also able to bring their
full pyrotechnic stage show to the jam stage as well, something
missing from two years ago. Besides their own hits, the band
also played a couple songs off last year’s cover album Poison’d,
“What I Like About You” from the Romantics and Loggins and
Messina’s “Your Mama Don’t Dance,” which they actually released
in 1989 and is a tour regular. I would much rather have the
often-played latter song replaced by another cut from Poison’d
like The Marshall Tucker Band’s “Can’t You See.” I am not a big
fan of too many solos during a show but both guitarist CC
Deville and drummer Rikki Rockett played solos that fit into the
show well and were not drawn out or boring. The only real
misstep of the night came when Michaels’ took too much time
thanking the crowd for making his show on VH-1 the #1 show on
the network. We all know about the show and I don’t think he
needs to focus on it during a Poison concert. The female fans
loved the ballads “Something to Believe In” and the band’s only
#1 hit “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” but I thought they were best
on faster songs like “Ride the Wind” and “Fallen Angel.” The
band finished the night with their two biggest party songs “Talk
Dirty to Me” and “Nothin’ But a Good Time” and kept the fans in
the venue until the very end.
Day 4
The final day came much too quickly with jam veterans and
all-female AC/DC cover band Thundherstruck taking the main stage
at 3pm. After stealing the show last year with a surprise 5pm
main stage performance after The Family Stone cancelled, the
girls came back and rocked the jam again. Hailing from
California, Thundherstruck has been adopted by Moondance Jam as
their very own. The band tore through several AC/DC hits,
including “Back in Black” and “Thunderstruck,” complete with
guitar solos and bassist Andrea Zermeno chugging an entire beer
with her left hand while strumming with her right in about 15
seconds. Lead singer Dyna Shirasaki commands the stage, and
guitarist Tina “Angus” Wood can shred the guitar and even
performs the Angus Young dance across the stage during solos.
Their set got started a little late and was unfortunately short,
but the band was able to play much longer later in the day when
they closed the saloon. As usual, the saloon was standing room
only during their performances.
Next up were Minnesota’s own The Gear Daddies, who gained fame
in 1990 with the song “I Wanna Drive the Zamboni.” The
tongue-in-cheek tune about wanting to drive the machine that
smoothes out ice skating rinks was featured in the movies Mighty
Ducks 2 and 3 and Mystery, Alaska. The band eventually played
Late Night with David Letterman but broke up in 1992. Over the
last couple years, the band has reunited to play several shows.
Many in the crowd knew their tunes and sang along the entire set
to songs like “Color of Her Eyes” and “Heavy Metal Boys.”
Unfortunately the band did not play what I think is their best
song “Strength,” but their set was a nice change of pace and
pleased many who remember seeing them in their heyday. I think
they would be a great band to see in a bar where they can take
their time and play as many songs as they like.
Another jam veteran, Kenny Wayne Shepherd was next to take the
stage. Shepherd, easily the best guitarist of the jam, opened
with the crowd pleasing three-song combo of “Somehow, Somewhere,
Someway,” “King’s Highway” and “True Lies.” Other strong songs
in the set were “Leaving You (Commit a Crime),” “Shame, Shame,
Shame,” and his biggest hit “Blue on Black.” While “Blue on
Black” is the song everyone knows, the band is so much more than
just one hit song. The band excels because lead singer Noah
Hunt’s bluesy voice is a perfect complement to Shepherd amazing
licks. Shepherd fits a guitar solo into every song and somehow
makes every solo sound unique. About the only song that didn’t
work for me was “Let the Good Times Roll,” which I would like to
have seen replaced by my favorite Shepherd song “Déjà Voodoo.”
Their best song of the night was their usual closer, a cover of
Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile.” The song was my favorite single
performance of the entire jam. As soon as the vocal part was
over, Hunt waved to the crowd and let Shepherd take over. What
followed was an amazing display of guitar genius that lasted
over 6 minutes that I didn’t want to end.
After Shepherd’s performance, I headed back to the saloon to
check out The Minnesota Whiskey Pigzz, whose lead singer Razz is
Moondance through and through. He has played eight of the last
nine Moondance Jams and has even written a song titled “Moondancing.”
The band played an entertaining set of original songs and cover
tunes to a huge crowd of The G-Fam, a Moondance Jam message
group he is part of who keep the spirit of Moondance alive with
get-togethers throughout the year.
Styx, now led by Tommy Shaw and James Young, next graced the
stage for their first Moondance appearance since 2002. Shaw has
assumed the lead of front man since Dennis DeYoung is no longer
with the band, but Young and keyboardist/vocalist Lawrence Gowan
both had their moments to shine. Styx took the stage promptly
at 9pm just as the sun was setting with “Blue Collar Man (Long
Nights)” with Shaw on lead vocals. You could immediately tell
the performance was going to be one with very high energy.
Shaw, Young, and bassist Ricky Phillips were all over the stage
yet still sounded great. Without DeYoung, some would assume
the band would shy away from his hits, but that theory was
discarded when the band launched into “The Grand Illusion” with
DeYoung’s replacement Gowan performing DeYoung’s parts to near
perfection. Gowan also is a huge presence onstage, rarely
sitting down with his unique rotating keyboard. He sometimes
even stands on his keyboard. Gowan also has the voice to tackle
any DeYoung song. Gowan followed this up with Styx’s first big
hit, the DeYoung-penned “Lady.” Shaw took back over for
“Lorelei” and “Too Much Time on My Hands” before the band
covered The Beatles’ “I am the Walrus” from their cover album
Big Bang Theory. While I am not a huge fan of cover albums, the
band adds their own twist to the song and it worked this
evening. Shaw and Gowan continued trading off lead singing
duties until Young took over late in the set on “Miss America.”
Young was very animated all night, performing several short
guitar solos and playing to the crowd. It would have been great
to hear him sing lead on another song such as “Snowblind.”
After finishing up their main set with “Come Sail Away,” which
Gowan started a capella with a short crowd sing-along, the band
left the stage to loud cheers in hopes of more. Styx obliged by
returning to play a 10-minute version of the hit “Renegade.”
The band extended the song with band introductions and solos and
Gowan ran around the stage snapping Polaroids and throwing them
to the crowd. The band did an excellent job performing the hits
everyone knows and put on a high-energy show that was the best
of the jamr.
Closing Sizzlin’ 17 was George Thorogood and the Destroyers, who
actually took on the task of closing even though they were on a
one-month break from touring. Even though they are touted as
the greatest bar band in the world, their show worked well on
the big stage and were making their fourth Moondance Jam
performance. The band opened with the new song “Rock Party” and
then proceeded to rock their way through most of their hits such
as “Move It on Over,” “I Drink Alone,” “Bad to the Bone,” and
“One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.” At this point, the cool
weather and high winds had driven many back to camp. The
weather was no deterrent to Thorogood though, as he returned to
the stage late in the set without a jacket and with his sleeves
rolled up to perform “Love Doctor.” Those who braved the
elements to the end were treated to a nice set that capped off
another successful Moondance Jam.
Back in 1992, Bill Bieloh never imagined that Moondance Jam
would grow to such a premiere festival. After asking Bieloh if
he ever dreamed what Moondance would turn into, he replied,
“Never in a million years.” In June 2007 an annual country
festival, Moondance Jammin’ Country, was added and has taken off
and is challenging the biggest country festivals in the US.
What is next in store for Moondance Jam? “Next year will be
three nights with bigger name acts,” says Bieloh. One thing is
for certain, Moondance Jam Sizzlin’ 17 will be hard to top.
For more information about Moondance Jam, visit the official
website at
www.moondancejam.com. There you will find information about
next year’s event and links to all Moondance activities.
Beginning August 15, early bird tickets will go on sale for
Moondance Jam 18. For about a month, regular and VIP tickets
will be sold at the cheapest price of the year. Moondance Jam
18 will take place from July 16-18, 2009.
