July 4 2013 – In a fictional world a 14 year old walked into The Rockpile to enjoy Canada Day Weekend 2013. He knows he loves music and in particular rock but he has not found a sound he can identify with yet. Not knowing what to expect he hears this “old’ dude named Pat Travers is pretty good on the ole 6 string. As the Pat Travers band delivers their first song our fictional boy gets goosebumps and feels something special in his soul. Something he had not knew existed before. As the night progresses the seed begins to grow and the lad knows he has found his calling. In 2023 (10 years later) as his face graces the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine with the title “The King of the Classic Rock revival”, he begins his interview by stating that he first discovered the music he loved in a Toronto bar named the Rockpile when he snuck in to see a gig from a blazing blues/rock musician named Pat Travers. He continues saying that this show lit a spark in his creative side and he knew that there was more to music than what was on the charts back in 2013. He is credited for leading the revival and killing commercialized and pre fabricated pop fluff and finally bringing back real music to the masses…… Not a very likely scenario but in a hypothetical setting that is a great tale to describe the power of the show that the Pat Travers Band delivered last Sunday night.
Canada produced an incredible batch of guitar wizards in the golden age of rock (aka the 70’s). To name just a few of them we have – Alex Lifeson, Jeff Healey, Rik Emmett, Neil Young, and the incredible Pat Travers. Although Travers no longer calls Toronto (nor Canada) home any more the audience felt something magical as one of their own was coming home. Oddly enough Travers did not comment at all about being back to his birthplace and home for 20 years – something that musicians usually revel in to at least get the crowd even more pumped about the show. The four piece band which is composed of Pat Travers (guitars, vocals), Kirk Mckim (guitars), Rodney O’Quinn (bass) and Sandy Gennaro (drums) gave a major league show and The Rockpile was as packed as we have ever seen it.
The setlist was a combination of some new Pat Travers Band songs, some covers of really old Blues standards, and of course some of Travers’ older material. The enthusiastic crowd enjoyed each and every song and when Travers introduced 2 songs from his new and upcoming album he joked that nobody would really care. Boy was he wrong – the scorching Diamond Girl and Can Do could have been songs right out of the late 70’s and when Travers looked down as he often does and lets his fingers run wild on the licks the audience was entranced with the wizardry.
Although Travers is clearly the name on the marquee at these shows the other three musicians are clearly good enough to play along and build the foundation for Travers to do what he does best. McKim is a phenomenal guitarist in his own right and I have a hard time of thinking of any other band I have ever seen with such talented dual guitarists up on stage (right on par with Neil Young and Frank Sampredo which we reviewed here).
O’Quinn was massive on the bass, and was able to nail the steady pounding required for the show with fingers flying as fast as Travers. Clearly O’Quinn was having fun as he was all smiles up on stage – the audience can detect musicians that are enjoying what they do and O’Quinn was clearly one of those musicians.
Gennaro made the drumming seem effortless. The veteran has played on such varied acts such as Bo Diddley, Cyndi Lauper, Joan Jett, and The Monkees but it just seems natural that he plays the bluesy rock that the Pat Travers Band is known for. His impeccable timing was truly phenomenal and with his contribution to this band the combined talent level is off the charts. Oh and did I mention he made it seem effortless and from where we stood he didn’t even seem to have broken a sweat. Truly a marvelous drummer.
The whole set was well received but as expected the two big hits that closed out the night literally rocked The Rockpile to it’s core. Snortin’ Whiskey and Boom Boom (Out Go The Lights) are the two songs that gave Travers fame on a global scale from 1978-1980 and everyone in the audience knew those songs well. High in recognition factor they went down very well and sounded as incredible as they did 30+ years ago – some music is simply timeless and Travers really highlighted that. By playing very old Blues songs such as Robert Johnson’s If I had Possesion Over Judgment Day (a song almost 80 years old) Travers really emphasized that good music does not have an expiry date. Back to our hypothetical world at the beginning of our article – imagine how cool it would be in 2060 a band hitting the stage and introducing an old rock staple that is 80 years old called Snortin’ Whiskey… That is the eternal power of music.
Verdict 4.5 out of 5 – This is a 5 star show in our minds BUT it was only 80 minutes long making it the shortest major name headlining show we have ever seen (beating the ridiculously short The Black Keys 85 minute set at the ACC a couple of years ago reviewed here). I hate to be negative but after the show we felt we only saw half a show and wanted another 80 minutes from the band! Overall this show will make it to our Top 10 Gigs of 2013 article for sure, Pat please come home more often and remind us all how good Canadian bred rock was (sorry Nickelback you don’t register on the good list).
KICK ASS SHOW THAT SHOULD NEVER BE MISSED!
