Journal: News & Comment

Rock in Hogtown

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Wednesday's "Toronto Rocks"/"SARSstock" concert in Toronto wasn't anything muscially remarkable. Every act that performed has probably done any number of better shows. But it was quite a spectacle. My two highlights:

• What happened to all of Randy Bachman's fat? He used to be huge, and now he looks like Kenny Rogers did 20 years ago. Sometime in the last few years, perhaps he transferred all his excess weight to his Guess Who bandmates Burton Cummings and Garry Peterson. He looks way better than Greg Keelor from Blue Rodeo, who's almost a decade younger.
  
  
• Say what you will about the Rolling Stones—AC/DC is probably the world's most elemental rock 'n' roll band. They have never dabbled in psychedelia, disco, or African music. They have never, as far as I know, used an acoustic guitar. I have never heard a single AC/DC song with a vocal harmony, for that matter. The one image I'll remember from the (sucky) television coverage of Wednesday's concert was AC/DC guitarist Angus Young in his trademark schoolboy uniform, silhouetted with his Gibson SG guitar against the sunset, a sea of nearly half a million people in front of him.

Oh, and while his Rush-mates have both aged, Geddy Lee looks exactly the same as he always has, right down to his hair. Weird.

Rock on, dudes.

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