Review: Bachman-Cummings in Montreal

I’m sitting here in Montreal typing away in what I must call a modern snapshot. I’m surrounded by items that may or may not have come from Ikea, but it all works together and it’s pretty darn cool sitting here while watching a swivel HD TV in front of me. Granted, it’s on the Country Music Network and I’m not sure why I haven’t turned it off.

For my birthday, Vero got us tickets to see Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings, otherwise known as the geniuses behind The Guess Who as well as Bachman-Turner Overdrive. I would consider them to be the Canadian equivalent to Lennon-McCartney, Jagger-Richards and Palmer-Palmer.

Our friend Benoit tipped us off to a Bed and Breakfast that he and Cinthia frequent in downtown Montreal. It is called Les Bon Matins and is located directly across from the Bell Center. We called and arranged to stay at a satellite bed and breakfast as they were all booked. Because it was a Wednesday night that we were heading up and they hadn’t booked it already, they gave us the apartment style accommodations for $150! It had a bar, a fridge, a living room, a jacuzzi tub and all the other things you need to have when hitting up Montreal for a night.

We arrived around 7PM in what appeared to be an interesting area of town (Papineau and Rue Ontario) but then discovered that you should never judge a book from its cover. As soon as we walked inside we were amazed by the place. Thanks to Benoit and Cinthia for recommending this place. It definitely beat out a hotel room in downtown Montreal which I’m sure we would get for the same price.

We walked up to Theatre St-Denis and headed in to the sounds of Booker T playing. The usher brought us to Row E which was 10 rows from the stage! It was a great view and the seats were super comfortable. Booker T is not known to either of us but from his comments, he has been around for awhile considering he recorded some songs with Otis Redding back in the sixties. After hearing a few songs from the end of the set, we sat back and waited for the main attraction to hit the stage.

When the show started, they had a montage of video and photos from Bachman-Cummings lives together. They were quite young when they started out! They then hit the stage along with their backing band who were quite entertaining, especially the bass player.

What a show! A little context for you…I don’t own any albums from these prolific songwriters but that’s something I shall rectify. They pulled out all the stops…they started off with some well known tunes like Clap for the Wolfman and You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet. They chatted a lot between songs about their travels together and apart and how they respected each other as songwriters. Burton Cummings played a solo track from his new album and then he left the stage to allow Randy Bachman to play a jazzy number from his new jazz album. They both took the stage again and played all the hits…American Woman, These Eyes, No Sugar Tonight, Let it Ride, Hey You…I’m sure I’ll think of more later on. I really enjoyed the showmanship of Cummings as he would play the piano like he was born to do and then get up and rock a little bit while showing off his skills. Bachman soloed as well as any other guitarist out there and he looked like a rocker with his leather pants and t-shirt. I really enjoyed the intimate feeling of the concert as they chatted about how they wrote some songs (No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature being two separate songs written in the same key and joined together). They encored with Share the Land and Taking Care of Business which got the crowd going. I really enjoyed the crowd tonight. The majority of the show was spent sitting down but Vero and I felt comfortable getting up to rock out for a few choice tracks that we loved.

This was the last show of the tour and we feel privileged to see them. I would definitely check them out in the future although I’m not sure if the setlist would ever change all that much. It was packed with the hits and even though I don’t own an album, there were only 5-6 tunes that I wasn’t familiar with and even if I wasn’t, it didn’t matter. They were professional musicians who played amazing music. I’m happy that Vero surprised me with tickets to this show. I love you!

We then headed back to the room where we enjoyed the pleasures within…namely a bridge with some cold Boreale beer!

So I hit here the morning after thinking about how different my life would be if I lived in downtown Montreal in a place like this. It would be amazing. Oh, there’s Vero. Must run. We’re off to see Philipp for lunch and then bring him to Ottawa. He’s leaving Canada soon and he needs to visit the embassy as the Montreal-German embassy has closed down for some reason.