"The Charbor Chronicles": Canned Heat at the Grounds of Woodstock - Bethel Woods, New York September 13, 2019

Canned Heat was one of those bands whom I had heard fairly frequently, sometimes without even knowing it was them, but which I knew little about, other than they had played at two of the most legendary music concerts in history – Monterrey Pop Festival in 1967 and the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. For a long time, I could only identify “Going Up the Country” as the one song that I knew from them, not making the connection that they also did “On the Road Again.” Later, I would learn that the song “Let’s Work Together” that was playing and which sounded so cool on Forest Gump, when Lieutenant Dan and Forest are in a hotel room with willing girls on New Year’s Day just before everything goes haywire for them, was also, in fact, Canned Heat, although it was them covering Wilbert Harrison. Little by little, I grew more impressed with the band.

Still, I was not exactly what you would call a huge fan of the band, or anything. I did not mind them, and did not turn them off whenever they came on the radio, although that was infrequent. But I was not otherwise overly familiar with their stuff.

Then, the year of the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival approached, I began to grow more interested in trying to see some of the musical acts who had performed at the big show. It has been half a century, so many of them were obviously not still around, and of those who still were, there was a sense of urgency to try and see them as soon as possible, while the opportunity was still there. After all, it is still fresh on my mind that I wanted to see Richie Havens years ago, and for fairly cheap. Yet, I hesitated to get tickets, even though I am no longer sure why, exactly. The date came and went, and I was determined to see him the next time tickets became available for another show. Only, he died shortly thereafter. Not long after that, Joe Cocker died, too.

So, it was indeed time to try and see artists like that while the opportunity was still available to do so.

Over the years I have seen quite a few of the original Woodstock artists. Some of the original Woodstock performers who I have seen over the years were The Who (multiple times, most recently in May with my son), John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival (multiple times, most recently at a Woodstock remembrance event at the 92nd Street Y in New York City last month with my son), Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young (most recently at Bethel Woods, the site of the actual Woodstock Music Festival, in 2014), Santana (also at Bethel Woods), Joan Baez (in 2016 or 2017 at the Bergen PAC in Englewood, NJ), and numerous other artists who are often themselves not named, but who did nevertheless perform on stage during that concert, such as Edgar Winter (who played with his brother, John Winter) and someone else, who I saw at Bethel Woods earlier this simmer with my son.

It has been a few years since I tried to see as many of the surviving Woodstock performers while the opportunity was still there, and so I took an especially active interest with the 50th anniversary year now upon us. I figured there would be at least one really huge concert event, where several of the original bands and/or performers would be featured, and indeed, at first, Woodstock 50 looked to be doing just that. Clearly, however, that fizzled and burned, and so everything seemed to have gone haywire.

There were some original Woodstock performers who were supposed to be there, and the thought of seeing them did intrigue me somewhat, even if, admittedly the list of projected performers for the new Woodstock 50 Music Festival seemed, frankly, underwhelming. But there were some original Woodstock artists, including John Fogerty, Santana, and Country Joe MacDonald, who I was definitely interested in seeing. Also, Canned Heat were set to perform, and I began to be intrigued, even though I already knew that there was no way that I could even attend the concert, even if I wanted to (and that was debatable), because my vacation dates, which I had to put in for well ahead of time, conflicted with the dates of the Woodstock 50 concert.

Then, I heard that Canned Heat were set to play soon. They were going to be playing at Bethel Woods, on the grounds of the old Woodstock Music Festival. An d I was set to have the night off, to boot!

This was too good to pass up, and so I got tickets for my brother, my son, and myself, and then anticipated the concert. It would be the first major event I looked forward to following the trip over the summer.

On Friday, we finally went to Bethel Woods for the concert.

First, of course, we went to the hill where the Woodstock concert actually took place. It is always amazing to think about what transpired here one weekend over half a century ago now. A rich, shining example of the best of the idealism of the sixties put into practice in a very public way.

It was a bit different than I remembered. Unfortunately, they got rid of the peace sign that they had earlier in the year. But that was not the only difference. The historical marker itself was now laden with all sorts of small things, from coins to guitar picks to personal momentos, all presumably small, personalized tributes that visitors had left behind. It was different from how I remember this site this time, also because a nearby tree had been adorned with a bunch of stuff like that, as well. Just a bit strange, but not entirely surprising.

We went into the actual town of White Lake, and ate, before the concert. Unfortunately, we pressed our luck time-wise, and had to rush back to make it back to the concert on time, which we did just by the skin of our teeth. But, we made it.

Finally, the concert itself. There were a good amount of songs that I knew, having the Uncanned! The Best of Canned Heat compilation of greatest hits. But there were quite a few that I admittedly was not so familiar with.

One thing that surprised me was how quickly the concert went, and another surprise came with the order of the songs. Knowing that most bands understandably save their best known songs, their biggest hits, for the end of the show, it was a surprise to see them open with one of their biggest songs, "On the Road Again." Just a few songs later, they played their very biggest song, the unofficial theme song to Woodstock, "Up the Country."

Surprise!

It was a good concert, however. They are a very talented group of musicians, and it made for an enjoyable evening, short show or not.

Below are some pictures from the evening, as well as very brief video clips, which had to be brief because of the lack of store space on my phone (yes again):