I only got to one of an outstanding Whoop Up Days Line Up — Wednesday, Aug. 23 — the classic rock night featuring a “Wonderful night” of ’70s and ’80s hits delivered in spades by Halifax born, Montreal based rockers April Wine and Florida rockers .38 Special.
April Wine still Like to Rock,” and showed it by opening strong with “Could Have been a Lady” and Fast Train and one of my absolute favourites “Enough is Enough,”
they focussed on the rockers from their late ’70s, early ’80s “Nature of the Beast ” era heyday.
The semi-retired frontman Myles Goodwin still has an impressive set of pipes, nailing the high notes of most of the band’s hits, though drummer Roy “Nip” Nichol nailed the earth shaking , heart stopping shrieks of another favourite “Weeping Widow.” bassist Richard Lanther added extra vocal harmonies to fill out the band’s sound.
Long time guitarist Brian Greenway also sang his share of the hits in his gravelly, AC DC styled voice while adding blazing solos, though he gave his axe a rest to play a mournful harmonica solo on “Rock and Roll is a Vicious Game.”
Greenway added a hot solo to “I Like to Rock,” while Goodwyn played the ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” part of the song‘s bridge.
In addition to their many hits to which the crowd happily sang along to, they also brought out a few obscurities including a song which featured a lovely arpeggiated lick, which I didn’t recognize. “I Wanna Rock,” was another pleasant album track.
The crowd sang along with “Tonight is a Wonderful Night to Fall in Love.”
They saved a hot version of “Sign of the Gypsy Queen for near the end of their set\ and officially ended their show with “Roller,“ Of course, they were called back for an encore of “Crash and Burn” and “Oowatanite,” which left eardrums ringing as much as the frenetic cowbell powered rhythm of the song.
I’ve never seen .38 Special before. And despite only having one original member , frontman/ guitarist Don Barnes , remaining, they still brought back the spirit of ’70s southern rock and’80s arena rock. They also had long time guitarist Danny Chauncey, who happily traded leads with barnes and leaped all over the stage and even played some sweet guitar harmonies.
Long time keyboardist Bobby Capp stood in the background adding subtle stings and drummer Gary Moffatt hammered away at the skins, getting his own time in the spotlight near the end of the show for a thunderous drum solo.
“Rocking into the Night,” was a good theme for the evening as the sun set over the grandstand as they played hit after hit including one of my favourites “Back Where You Belong” as well as “Wild Eyed Southern Boys.”
They played a mini set of some of their best known movie hits including “Take Me Back To Paradise” and “Teacher Teacher,” and even played several upbeat rockers from Don Barnes‘ solo record “ Riding the Thunder.”
As expected they played some of their hit ballads like “ If I Could Be the One.”
A highlight was the rocker “Trooper with an Attitude.”
they saved “Caught Up in You” for near the end of the set and were called back for an encore of “Hold On Loosely” and a cover of Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet band’s “Travelin’ Band.”
