Creedence live on their home turf in 1970

After reissuing bonus-track laden CDs of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s first six albums, Fantasy’s new owner, the Concord Music Group, adds a straight (no bonus tracks) reissue of the group’s 1970 concert at the Oakland (California) Coliseum. While many bands’ live shows sound like their records, in Creedence’s case their studio albums had the muscle of their live shows. The difference may be lost on some, but it was never lost on the group’s audiences, who found themselves overwhelmed by the power of the rhythm battery and entranced by John Fogerty’s guitar playing.

With four albums under their belts and Cosmo’s Factory on the way (“Travellin’ Band” and “Who’ll Stop the Rain” are included here), the live set list was essentially a greatest hits package. The two non-Fogerty compositions are the blues “The Night Time is the Right Time,” and the traditional “Midnight Special.” The latter may as well have been a Fogerty tune, given how well it fits with his original tunes. By 1970 Creedence had moved away from the Fillmore-styled jams of their earlier days, with only the nine-minute “Keep on Chooglin’” getting a lengthy exploration.

Given their prowess as a band, it’s a shame they didn’t continue to stretch out more on stage, but with their audience accumulating listeners from radio, the two- and three-minute hits became the public part of their catalog. The short clips of chatter and song introductions show Fogerty to be an engaging front-man, backed by a powerhouse band and fueled by a killer song catalog. This isn’t a revelatory live album, such as the Allman Brothers’ At Fillmore East, but it is a true snapshot of the Great American Band at the height of their powers. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]