Opening bands get the crowd moving
Published Monday June 29th, 2009
Bachman-Cummings, State of Shock, Mobile, Alfa Rococo performed to ever-growing number of fans as the day went on
By the time Bon Jovi hit the stage Saturday night, 33,000 strong was ready to rock thanks to the four bands that stormed the stage before the New Jersey band closed the evening off with their hit-packed two-hour set.
While many in the crowd came to see Bon Jovi and Bachman-Cummings, the crowd was clearly enjoying the tunes played by Alfa Rococo, Mobile and State of Shock early in the afternoon.
Alfa Rococo was up to the daunting task of warming up the crowd even more than Mother Nature already had on the hot summer afternoon when the Montreal band took the stage just before 4 p.m.
Duo Justine Laberge and David Bussieres brought a four-piece backing band with them to enhance their '80s-inspired, synthesizer-inflected pop rock.
They played five tunes, and even managed to slip in a guitar lick from Michael Jackson's Beat It into their fourth number, La Réalité, in tribute to the fallen King of Pop.
Laberge and Bussieres played to the crowd in French and English. The crowd was fairly laid back for the duo's set, but groups of people could be spotted dancing along to the band's tunes, and Bussieres did his best to psyche up the crowd in both offficial languages.
Fellow Montrealers Mobile were up next with a hard rockin' set that had a bit of a new wave feel.
The band surprised some fans unfamiliar with them until the end when instantly recognizable hit Out of My Head closed their set. Singer Mat Joly got the crowd rocking during the tune.
"They were wicked," Krystal MacLean said of Mobile after they left the stage. "I didn't even know who they were until they played their last song, but they were great."
MacLean and her daughter Samantha, from Sydney, Cape Breton, were both sporting bright pink T-shirts that read "Cape Breton loves Bon Jovi".
The third band up, Vancouver's State of Shock, brought a brand of energetic modern rock that was well received by fans, especially the younger music fans at Magnetic Hill who embraced the band as their own.
When singer Cam Melnyk announced the song Best I Ever Had, a chorus of girls in front of the stage could be heard shrieking.
The band's hits Too Pretty and Honeymoon's Over also elicited a roar from the crowd, and when Melnyk asked before their last song, "I wonder what the last song is?" the answer was obvious. The band launched into Money Honey, and Melnyk didn't even have to try to get the crowd singing along.
"Amazing, I love State of Shock," Summerside, P.E.I. native Josh Gallant said after the band's set.
"It's was so awesome it wasn't even funny," Lola Vicaire from Restigouche, Que. said after State of Shock left the stage.
Lindsay Arsenault, also from P.E.I., was spotted singing along to nearly every song State of Shock performed.
But she says she was really in town for "Jon Bon."
But before Bon Jovi was to hit the stage, legendary Canadian rockers Bachman-Cummings hit the stage with an hour-plus long set that featured so many instantly recognizable hits it was almost laughable.
The crowd rocked along to all of them, getting especially riled up when Randy Bachman hit the opening chords of American Woman and Hey You, which singer/keyboardist Burton Cummings gave a special introduction to:
"To continue today's musical festivities, we're going to play a song Randy wrote when he didn't like me much," he said before Bachman hit that familiar guitar riff.
The band played other favourites from the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive's legendary careers, including You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, My Own Way To Rock, Let It Ride and No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature.
It was a greatest hits set that in many ways could serve as a soundtrack to Canadian life.
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