FOGHAT with (Shuddup & Drive)

April 23, 2004

@ McCools’ Lounge / South Haven, Indiana 

Review by Jim Fox

Photos by George Fadley 

 

            Foghat was coming to town!  It was hard to believe, but it became a reality on a Friday night April 23 2004, at McCools’ night club in rural South Haven, Indiana. 

This was the band that was selling out stadiums in the 1970’s, so I have to admit that I was more than eager to see these guys again, remembering how great their shows were in my earlier years.  Opening the show were local rock favorites, Shuddup & Drive.  These guys continue to show why they are such a popular band with their large repertoire of songs in their music banks.  Marty “Carr” Edmaiston dazzled the crowd with his superb guitar work, while elder brother Raymond played drums while singing lead and backup vocals.  Rounding out the band and keeping the groove going strong was the thumping bass of Leo Lopez and solid keyboard work of  Ronnie B.

            Shuddup & Drive played for approximately one hour, with Marty showing his chops off on songs from Jeff Beck’s “Wireless” album.  They also played some songs off their own first album, “Medicine Man”, which definitely kept the crowd pumped.  The intermission was filled with “Doors” music emanating through all the bodies, which by now were packed in tight to the hilt, in anticipation of Foghat who was scheduled for 11:00pm.

            Amid chants of –– “Foghat!  Foghat! ” –– the band finally took the stage and immediately launched into the song ‘Home In My Hand,” which sounded quite excellent.  The list of songs they played that night was as follows. “Take Me To The River”, “Driving Wheel”, “Sweet Home Chicago”, “Fool for the City”, “(I Just) Wanna Make Love To You”, followed by “Trouble Trouble”, “Mumbo Jumbo”, and “Self Medicated”, off their new  CD – Family Joules. 

The band closed the show with a rousing rendition of “Slow Ride”.  I must note that even though there are only two original members left from the original Foghat lineup –– drummer Roger Earl, and bassist Tony Stevens –– the band really rocked well and lived up to the proud Foghat name.

 

 

 

 

The rest of the 2004 Foghat lineup included ex-Molly Hatchett guitarist Bryan Bassett and former Victory/Humble Pie singer-guitarist Charlie Huhn.   The classic songs came alive again in the hands of this well-oiled quartet of veteran players. The evening came off quite well, judging from the enthusiastic roar of the crowd. 

It was obvious from the loud cheering and shouts from the breathing room only crowd that there were no “Fools In This City” that witnessed this show!