Ontario Place

Speaking of legends riding on their rep, one of the most notorious is Buddy Guy, and against my better judgment I went to see him again, this time at Ontario Place, only because it was a beautiful outdoor setting and because he was appearing with Koko Taylor and John Mayall and his Bluesbreakers. Mayall has introduced so many great guitarists that I was anxious to see what he had in store for us this time. Well the demographic of his band was quite telling: You had the old guy (Mayall, looking fit as hell), a young bass player, a bald drummer and an overweight guitarist. But the guitarist did manage to slip comfortably into the boots left behind by such legendary players as Clapton and Mick Taylor. He was playful and restrained throughout the set but when his spotlight came around he played a blistering solo that brought the crowd to its feet and was so hypnotizing that even his own band were so transported that they lost their place for a split second. At the end of the song, he flicked his pick into the audience – a nice touch, only slightly diminished when he tossed out a dozen more at the end of the set. I wonder if he’s got his name on that pick. I never got it but it sounded something like “Coco Montoya”. At least Mayall introduced his musicians. Buddy Guy probably didn’t even know the names of the young white kids in his pickup band. His performance deserves no comment except to say that he did show up, he was on stage from the first tune (I’m sure he wasn’t too happy about that) and his exit tune was “Sunshine of Your Love”. What is this man trying to tell us? And Koko Taylor was great as always. It’s just too bad she didn’t follow Buddy Guy to leave everybody with a little better taste of the blues “legends”. So we saw the legend that was, the legend that is and the legend that will be (who was that guitar player anyway???).