Burton Cummings and his Band  Arlington Music Hall  Arlington, Texas 9/21/2024

                                                                                                    All Photography on this page courtesy of Jonathan Edwards 

     Somewhere toward the beginning of '24  I'd head something about Burton coming to Arlington. For me this was one of two major shows coming to town, the other is ELO at the AAC.  I scrambled to get tickets, wound up in Y row because it was the best we could get and had a great time. It was my wife's birthday, but I have been a Guess Who fan since I was 10.  We got dinner next door at the Mellow Mushroom and walked over to the Arlington Music Hall, I'd waiting years for this. Pre Covid, the closest Burton got was Las Vegas, during Covid he did solo pieces from his study on FB Live. Now he brought the band into my back yard, time to go! I had no idea my anticipation for this show, but I would very soon.

      We were called back and seated, Arlington Music Hall is a beautiful venue - It was our first time there, and compares nicely to the Kessler and the Granada in Dallas. We got seated, and after announcements of coming attractions, the lights went down and band members began taking their places onstage.

     This show was going to be a treat!  After a count the band launched into an instrumental preparing an classic entrance for Burton, much to my delight I recognized the opening of "Runnin back to Saskatoon" which is a fun record.  Burton find his way to the keyboard and launched!  Great bouncy rocking tune about a town not much happens in, which has a few other Canadian towns mentioned. Of course I knew the lyrics! I do think he may have altered a piece to target our advanced ages now, though. The original was medically inclined and was there but I thought slightly altered "I been hangin' around hospitals ;I been learnin' 'bout dyin'; I been talkin' to chest surgeons, I been talking bout hearts" - Well, by now we've all had that chat. Singing up this prairie tune about places like Medicine Hat and Moosejaw was a great way to get going!

     Burton brought the hits! It was a 2 hour show that could have easily gone 3. "Hand me down World" started after the applause died down, with a short intro from Burt about Kurt Winter, who wrote the song. He thought the song still relevant, and I think we all agreed. Then he introduced us to "Albert.. Flasher". This was a tune he wrote while sitting in a newsroom watching a broken sign flash "Alert" - He wrote it down and fleshed out the lyrics. "Baby and me were ripe for the pickens..That was the day we ran into Albert Flasher" - Who hasn't been here? The band went into "Laughing" and although I had not heard this song in decades, I rolled the lyrics with that memory perfection which never seems to work when I need it.  Burton gave brief instructions to the audience (our parts) before the band went into JJ Cale's "Trouble in the City"  I did not know this one, had fun with it anyway! Burton cranked up "Star Baby" next and that was the second time I'd sung it that day, having played it on my show (along with other TGW tunes) to promote the fact he was in town. "Star Baby" is about adoring a babe you can't have- Which was never a problem for the Wolfman! It was "Clap for the Wolfman" Burton was talking bout rating the records high. I was doing the Wolfmans' parts-Baby you got the curves, I got the angles!

    This show was magic, we were, and still are, the Fans! Burton said the boys got him a flute, and he needed to keep in practice, then they started into "Undone" followed by "These Eyes". They followed that with American Woman, and people were moving by then, dancing in their little areas. OK, I was too... In the midst of the Guess Who Hits, He did a couple of his own, including "Break it to them gently" a song about crime and being on the run. Once he cleared the main lyrics, the backups sang "Gotta roll the old lady" and Burton started talking about late nights, with a transistor radio under the sheets, and all the great songs those stations brought to us. Although he is 12 years my senior, I FULLY understood this sequence (These were my teenage years) and my eyes started up. I think it was allergies...  No Sugar tonight-New mother Nature had us rockin, and dropped straight into No Time. Even my wife got up for that one! Then the band left the stage. Of course, they came back for encore, this was Share the Land. This was a treat, and a no cliché way to end the show, I knew it could not have been America Woman since they'd done it.  It was a music filled room bigger than a basement, the situation did us right. It was a rocking night in Arlington, but the band wasn't playing "Shakin All Over"-  GO SEE BURTON! Thanks for reading, I'll see you at 7 Saturday!

- Chris Br