| . Over The Edge - Page 9 - Church played a good, if Brandt Concert Cat by Michelle Berard Paul Brandt may be consid- ered young in the music industry, but there is one thing he will néver have to worry about - revving a crowd up - all he has to do is Above: Brandt singing his single, “| Meant To Do That” Right: Paul Brandt takes time before the show to meet with his fans. (Laurie Soares shown here) Photos - Jen Smith step on stage. 2 Opening act Cind not exciting, set to open the concert November 5 at the Multiplex. Her current single, “Lover Please,” managed to get the crowd involved, but for the most part everyone remained mellow. During the 20 minute inter- mission after Church’s per- formance, she made herself available to fans for auto- graphs and pictures. Brandt himself had.a backstage preshow set up. for select fans, a rare occurrence for most headlining artists.’ When Brandt walked on stage, the calm _ crowd became frenzied. The usual- ly strict security ‘at the Multiplex relaxed, probably due to the fact that only 300 seats were available on the ers to Fans floor, and fans were able to crowd around the stage as Brandt opened with “Take It From Me” album, “Calm Before The Storm.” . Although Brandt mentioned that he was extremely shy earlier in his life and that he had to be pushed to sign by his mother, he seemed - to have gotten over that prob- lem extremely well, holding his ground as fans at the front of the stage grabbed his legs and boots. Through out the concert, Brandt was showered with gifts - flowers, stuffed animals and even a homemade doll resem- bling Brandt himself. He "seemed to still be absorb- Jing the fact that all the fuss was made over him, © but also enjoyed it, a wide | smile gracing his face for almost the entire concert. He also seemed impressed as a good por- tion of the crowd sang every song along with him. Halfway through the ‘con- cert, Brandt reflected on the identity crisis he went through while attempting to Creedence Clearwater Revisited By Sandy Sims The evening of November 11th Creedence Clearwater Revisited put on a ; concert at the Prince George Multiplex. The stadium, although not quite full, was composed of a wide range of ages: the die hard seven- ties rockers, CCR fans, parents and their kids alike. Opening for the band was Newfoundland country singer Terry Kelly. Despite a valiant effort by the two stiff guitar front- men and rouse the audience. act, the crowd was ready and welcomed Above: It ain't Fogerty, : . {out John Trisasto rocked outgoing Kelly, hiS|the crowd in his absence. ‘{Some couldn't tell the dif- drum |ference! Right: CCR lead ensemble did little to|guitarist Eliot Easton | effortlessly brought down After the opening|S°™e of the best guitar solos the Mulitplex has heard in a while. Photos - Kevin Milos CCR. Known now. as Clearwater Revisited, only two of the original CCR mem- Creedence bers are with the band. Stu C—o.2o.3k remains on bass guitar and Cosmo, a true picture of the CCR leg- end on drums. The Fogerty brothers have been replaced by former Cars player Eliot Easton on lead guitar, key- boardist - acoustic guitarist Steve Gunner and on vocals and rhythm guitar, John Tristao. The perfor- mance was me incredibly close to CCR mate- rial with all the great- est hits covered. The crowd fpswas espe- Mcially apprecia- tive of from his first. original find his own style of music. He performed versions of several songs by other artists, including “Amazing Grace” which he sang at his high school graduation for his first public appearance, as well as an astonishingly on-the-mark imitation of Garth Brooks’ “The Dance.” His own style, however, dom- inated the evening with such hits as “| Meant To Do That” ~ and “A.Little In Love.” Brandt left the stage after Fortunate Son, Lookin’ Out My Back Door, | Heard It Through The Grapevine and Proud Mary. Easton more than did his job on lead guitar with ten minute electrifying solos and “his “you know I’m the man” composure. Cook and Cosmo represented the good ol’ days the band had seen, giving the audience every- thing they had. Steve Gunner, invisible on acoustic guitar, was commendable - however, his harmonica play- ing skills left something to be desired on “Run Through The Jungle.” And: as ‘Stu Cook put it, Tristao had big shoes to fill taking. on Fogerty’s place. You have to give him credit however, his vocals and persona. was more a Spinal Tap movie extra meets Springsteen hits hard times than CCR lead singer. One issue | must address is security at the concert. Being Above: Cindy Church signs photos during the intermission Photo by Jen Smith receiving a wild response to his first single, “My Heart Has A History.” As the crowd went crazy demanding an encore, ga girl fainted and had to be carried out of the crowd at the front of the stage. Security then formed a line across the front of the stage, more in_ their usual style, for ~~ Brandt's encore. ’ Brandt returned . to the stage and performed three more songs, fin- ' ishing with his biggest single thus far, “] Do.” Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Brandt has already in a mere 23 years worked as a pediatric nurse for 2 years, won talent contests, signed a record deal, released 2 albums and won numerous awards. The only way this promising artist has to go is up -.and he is most definitely headed in.that direction. an Ontarian, | don’t know what Prince George audi- ence protocol is but when | go to see a band | like, | stand up, | dance. Obviously, not here, whenever a mem- ber of the audience stood up to appreciate _ security promptly made them take their seat. Kind of hard to groove to the band when big buddy (don’t forget your tick- - et cash pays his salary too) plops you back down on your butt. Don’t know about the other audience members, but | passed Kindergarten a long time ago. Overall, | was impressed with Creedence Clearwater Revisited. They put on an amazing concert and hey, if the Stones can cash in, why can’t CCR?