By: Rick Landers
Nothing like some down home on the bajou rock to keep things cooking on a hot swampy night at Northern Virginia’s open air venue, the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts in Vienna where Creedence Clearwater Revisited played hit after hit of their former self, Creedence Clearwater Revival. The Revisited cast of performers includes two of the original CCR members, Doug “Cosmo” Clifford (drums) and bassist, Stuart Cook. So, you got the beat and the bass backbone from the ‘60s and ‘70s harnessed to Kurt Griffey on lead guitar, Steve Gunner stationed at his Korg Triton keyboard and the CCR lead vocals by John Tristao, who’s got the grit and the timbre to make the rafters shake.
As expected, once CCR unleashed the first few chords of the first CCR hit of the night, “Born on a Bayou”, the crowd forgot about the heat and dug in and sang along with abandon. Revisited loaded up with hit after hit, most of which continue to be played on stations around the world. “Have You Ever Seen the Rain”, “Lodi”, “Fortunate Son”, “It Came Our of The Sky”; “Looking Out My Backdoor”, “Midnight Special”, “Proud Mary”, “Travelling Band”, “Long As I Can See The Light”; “Suzie Q” and more.
John Tristao, Doug "Cosmo" Clifford and Stuart Cook of CCR.
An unusual and curious orchestral arrangement opened the door to the CCR hit and Motown classic, “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” with the crowd singing along, Griffey filling in that funk lead and the buff Cosmo on his classic fade DW’s punching out a thumping backbeat. Leading the pack was vocalist, Tristao, who not only nailed the vocals, but was a consummate showman. His humorous bantering with the audience, wild-eyed facial expressions and slapstick antics kept the audience clinched and wanting more.
Doug and Stu pulled together Creedence Clearwater Revisited back in 1995 and have wowed audiences ever since with Revival’s string of hits. And they’ve done it in a way that’s not watered-down or comes off as some flimsy cover band. Revisited starts off strong and never lets loose until the last encore. On this night, their encore offered up more Creedence hits, as well as a crowd-pleasing rendition of Little Richard’s “Good Golly Miss Molly” and “Up Around the Bend”. The Creedence Clearwater Revisited show started out strong and ended strong, never letting go of the crowd until CCR was ready to call it a night and load out.
