Eric Burdon Returns to the Roxy
Eric Burdon and the Animals returned to Hollywood this week for the first time in 40 years for two shows at the Roxy as a warm up for their upcoming European tour where they will be playing a handful of festivals. The group started out in the early sixties in Newcastle, England, before moving down to London for a residency at the legendary 100 Club in 1964 where they made a quick impression with their punchy R&B style based on artists like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Bo Diddley.
The powerful vocals of the pint sized Burdon and the playing of the musicians like Chas Chandler and Alan Price soon saw them on the charts with the radio favorite āHouse of the Rising Sun.ā Eric performed that along with all his other numerous hits atĀ The Roxy on Sunset Strip in Hollywood, an area he has been absent from for about
forty years.
However, with a powerful new veteran style Animals line up that included two drummers, the songs came alive with a few new jazzy riffs and a sense of freshness. Alan Price used to use a tiny Vox keyboards on stage to a maximum effect, but the new keyboardist who came right out of the āSchool of Jerry Lee Lewis keyboard skillsā had a nice Hammond B3 to play with and really rounded out the overall sound.
Even though Eric is 73 years old, the women were still screaming for him throughoutĀ the show, and despite his movements being rather limited on stage and confined to someĀ percussion work, his voice remains his biggest selling point.
A couple of women jumped on the stage to grab him much to the amusement of theĀ band members but he carried on unaffected which I think was during his excellentĀ rendition of āSpill the Wine.ā
Aside from the classic hits, he also performed a couple of songs from his new albumĀ on Abkco called Til Your River Runs Dry that has been well received by fansĀ and music critics. He also performed music from his psychedelic eraĀ when the band included Zoot Money and Andy Summers, including the brilliantĀ and underplayed āMonterey,ā and āSky Pilot.ā
The show lasted 1 ¾ hours with two encores, the final song being a really oldĀ Animals chestnut, the John Lee Hooker classic blues anthem āBoom Boom.āĀ The Ojai resident shows no sign of slowing down, and music is all the betterĀ for it.
Eric Burdon and the Animals returned to Hollywood this week for the first time in 40 years for two shows at the… http://t.co/AZzxQGAWKl