Forty-five years is a long time to do anything in life.  Especially something that you like.  A seasoned musician by the name of George Thorogood has accomplished that and then some playing his brand of boogie woogie rock your ass stuff to adoring crowds.  You get what you come to see and it is all under the direction of this master showman who looks lean and mean.  Growley voice still killin’ it out on the road with his vaunted Destroyers under the “Good to Be Bad” tour moniker!   Eye noe dats rite!

First time I saw GT in Texas after multiple times in Ohio was at Cardi’s on Westheimer and Fountain back in the 80’s sometime. Hard to believe that this was my fifth time covering GT in H-Town and his tight band sounds better than ever.  Jeff Simon on battering skins, Bill Blough on bass, bad ass Jim Suhler on rhythm guitar, and smokin’ Buddy Leach on sax fill in all the holes backing up Thorogood’s mean elongated slide solos.  George always knows when to give them room to shine which they do.  Full throttle arsenal of blasting chestnuts come at you like hand grenades lobbed from the sweaty stage.  Goose bumps came early on with “Who Do You Love”, “I Drink Alone”, and full on story included version of “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” brought the house to their collective feet.

Amazing how GT’s “ham n’ egg” banter routine with the audience gets better with age especially on his advice to avoid a DWI: ” Have your buddy drive you home.  Or have your girlfriend drive you home.  BETTER yet have your buddy’s girlfriend drive your ass home!”  That grin is still electrifying for damn sure.

Baby boomer rockers loved “Get A Haircut”, stunning “Move It On Over”, and a tremendously delicious version of “Bad To The Bone”!  GT & the Destroyers have been called a lot of things, but the one they wear proudly is “The World’s Greatest Bar Band”.  Since 1975 they have sold over 15 million albums, built a Hall of Fame catalog of hits, and always show up to deliver a powerful gig. To quote George himself sums it up well: “It was never about the amount of people we drew, but rather the impression we made. I asked myself, Are we reaching them? Do they want more?’ And we knew from the very first set that we had something special.”   This was definitely a “Rock Party” and hope to see yet more down the road………Support live music!