John Fogerty was ready to rock.
The 76-year-old Bay Area rock icon, who was born in Berkeley and grew up in El Cerrito, basically sprinted out onto the stage Saturday night at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga.
“We are here to have a good rockin’ time,” the vocalist-guitarist said to the full house in attendance. “We are doing stuff like this again, and it feels really good.”
Maybe Fogerty had been saving up his energy while the COVID-19 pandemic had closed down most music venues for well over a year. Perhaps he was just excited to be performing back home in the Bay Area, the place that gave birth to his legendary former band, Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR), and set Fogerty on a direct path to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Whatever the reason, Fogerty was bursting with energy and good vibes as he ran through 20 terrific songs during a roughly 100-minute show. He kicked off the concert with a rowdy, revved-up version of the classic “Up Around the Bend” from CCR’s blockbuster 1970 outing, “Cosmo’s Factory,” and then dove right into the title track of 1969’s multiplatinum “Green River.”
He reintroduced fans to “Suzie Q,” the bluesy psychedelic cover of the Dale Hawkins rockabilly tune that proved to be CCR’s first hit, and followed up with a tour through the swamp-rock masterpiece, “Born on the Bayou.”
“How you doing?” Fogerty asked the crowd, which roared back in joy and excitement. “Me, too.”
Fogerty sounded strong on the microphone, as well as on a variety of cool-looking guitars, including a Rickenbacker he purchased in 1969.
“I played this guitar at Woodstock!” the rocker exclaimed.
Fogerty actually gave that Rickenbacker away not long after that famed counterculture event, but decades later, Fogerty’s wife Julie made it her mission to get that beloved guitar back for him.
“I didn’t see the guitar for 44 years,” Fogerty said. “I got my my baby back, and I got to tell you, I’m tickled.”
The joy was apparent in the music, as Fogerty led his top-notch band — featuring sons Shane and Tyler — through “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” “Lookin’ Out My Back Door,” “Lodi” and “Run Through the Jungle.”
For those keeping score, that made eight stone-cold CCR classics in a row to open the show.
Fogerty then decided to showcase his solo career, muscling through “Hot Rod Heat” from 1997’s “Blue Moon Swamp” and performing his topical new song, “Weeping in the Promised Land,” penned in response to the pandemic, the killing of George Floyd and other recent events.
“It really has been a heck of a couple of years,” Fogerty said.
After that moving gospel-folk offering, the star played a couple of CCR’s best covers — “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “Good Golly Miss Molly” — the latter featuring some epic guitar work from Shane Fogerty and some strong vocals (and dance moves!) from brother Tyler.
The diversely appealing double shot of CCR’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” and “Down on the Corner” got fans up and dancing, and the festive atmosphere continued once Fogerty broke out his baseball-bat guitar for the sing-along favorite “Centerfield.”
He closed the main set with “The Old Man Down the Road” and “Fortunate Son” and, forgoing the ritual of walking offstage and waiting to be called back for an encore, Forgerty just stayed put and performed “Bad Moon Rising” and “Proud Mary.”
