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Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

PHOTOS: Bachman and Cummings deliver for hometown fans

By: Melissa Martin

Posted: 07/1/2009 8:16 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings entertain the masses at the MTS Centre Tuesday night. (BORIS.MINKEVICH@FREEPRESS.MB.CA )

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Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings entertain the masses at the MTS Centre. (BORIS.MINKEVICH@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

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Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings entertain the masses at the MTS Centre. (BORIS.MINKEVICH@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

Enlarge Image

Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings entertain the masses at the MTS Centre. (BORIS.MINKEVICH@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

Enlarge Image

Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings entertain the masses at the MTS Centre. (BORIS.MINKEVICH@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

Bachman Cummings June 30 MTS Centre Attendance: 6000 *** ½

Four years ago, having triumphantly mended the fences they smashed all over North America in the early 1970s, Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings publicly walked away from their dusty old band name and branded themselves with a more self-evident moniker, just Bachman Cummings.

Still, some commentators can't get over the name. Their argument makes sense: if Bachman and Cummings were the architects of the Guess Who, then fans will always see the pairing as, well, the Guess Who. Problem being, Bachman Cummings is not just the Guess Who With The Answers Filled In.

Sure, the bulk of the well-rounded two-hour set they unveiled at the MTS Centre on Tuesday night hailed from the Guess Who days. But there was more to it than that: together, the duo pumped out Bachman Turner Overdrive classics, a handful of Cummings' bouffant solo hits (sadly, some of his best didn't make the set list), and a selection from Jukebox, their 2007 covers collection.

And where the Guess Who were bona fide rock stars, Bachman Cummings (joined on this tour by longtime backing band the Carpet Frogs) are just two guys with an invisible bungee cord tying their hearts to the flagpoles at Portage and Main. Maybe it's different when you're playing to an arena full of people who first saw you haunting North End community clubs in rainbow shirts your mother bought.

Or maybe, they 're just glad to snap back home. The MTS Centre show was unhurried, unpretentious, and uncommonly casual. Bachman, looking trim and hale at 65, and Cummings took the stage at 8:15 p.m. with relatively little fanfare and laid into the set, starting with Running Back to Saskatoon, BTO hit You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, and Laughing.

From there on out, it was lots of hits... and lots of history. They swapped songs, with Cummings trilling through his elegant Timeless Love and Bachman replying with the gentle Prairie Town. And they swapped stories: Cummings commented on old Deverons fans in attendance, Bachman waxed poetic about the day a disc jockey discovered Undun on Laughing's B-Side, and gave them their first double-sided hit.

Cummings' voice, for the most part, sounded strong, though sometimes lost under the instruments; that may have been a side-effect of press box acoustics and some swampy production. When songs were stripped down, especially on the tantalizing Undun, his voice soared.

There was some worry that These Eyes might be missing from the set list, as it was on recent tour dates. We are happy to report it wasn't so.

"We don't play this every night, because I just can't sound like that Burton from the 60s," Cummings said amiably, before laying into the tune's unforgettable chording. "But we've got to try for the hometown. Everything changed after this song."

We're not sure what he was worried about: These Eyes ended up being one of his best vocal deliveries of the night. Not as effortless as it was 40 years ago, but still enough to raise the hairs on the back of your neck.

Though most of the show was relaxed, Bachman, Cummings and the Frogs started to crescendo in the last 40 minutes of the set, dishing out a growling snippet of the Doors' Roadhouse Blues, which segued into the unforgettable spelling into of American Woman. Then they blasted through some old-time rock'n'roll before sending the crowd to their feet with a giant Canadian flag and sharp encore versions of Share the Land and, finally, perennial summer rocker Takin' Care of Business.

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