Thursday, June 21, 2007

Eric Burdon & The Animals @ SD County Fair 06/20/07

In true fashion, Eric Burdon and The Animals started about 15 minutes late. He came out wearing shades and ready to rock. His band consisted of himself on vocals and 4 members: Red Young on keyboards, Eric McFadden on guitars, Paula O'Rourke on bass, Tony Braunagel on drums. And according to Burdon, Eric McFadden was present during some of the original recording sessions of The Animals. Paula, the bassist, was in a dress and boots. It reminded me of the way the band Hole would dress. The sound was fine after some fine tuning and the band seemed to be having a good time.

They played about 13 to 14 songs. They opened up with Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood. And they spread out the hits (We've Got to Get Out of this Place, It's My Life(which the guy next to me sang very loudly), I Put A Spell On You, and See See Rider) throughout the set and mixed them up with his solo albums that were all blues and New Orleans type jazz. I'm sure they played some other hits, but I can't remember. During House of the Rising Sun, the crowd went wild. People were running up to the stage and standing in front of the people that were seated. Granted, it wasn't meant to be a seated concert. People would get chairs and sit down wherever, even on the dancefloor. You had the ex-hippies dancing around, re-living their past. There were a lot of people there from that generation and most with their families and the few that were there on dates, acting like they were that age again. The young crowd was surprising. It wasn't huge, but they were present and they were vocal.

Burdon and his Animals played for about and hour and a half and they got a standing ovation at the end. I had a good time, sipping on my beer, observing the crowd and chuckling to myself when he played his song, Mother Nature, and stated how he could smell people smoking "Mother Nature."

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