George Thorogood A Concert Review	August 17, 2005 Rialto Square Theatre Joliet, IL A Review by The Dude on the Left Photos by The Dude on the Right

First a few words about the Rialto Theatre in scenic, downtown Joliet, IL. It opened in 1926 and was renovated in 1981. The Rialto is a great old theater and it’s relatively small so there are no bad seats. The sound is great and walking around the big, marble-tiled lobby is a little like stepping back in time. Joliet has kind of a bad rep in the Chicago area, some of it deserved, and some of it not. The area around the Rialto is coming around, and there is a casino right up the street. They don’t get many rock acts there, right now, but if you happen to see that a band you like is playing there, I recommend you make the trip and check it out. One bad thing about the Rialto, and it's the same with most old theaters, is that the seats tend to be a bit small.  They are fine for a normal sized person, and even finely chiseled folks like myself , but they are a bit tight for the larger folks. I got a bit of a chuckle out of a couple no-necked, 300-pounders squeezing into seats next to each other a couple row in front of us. One other item of note, the ushers at the Rialto are all volunteers and a majority of them are little old ladies. They very friendly and helpful, but I joked with the Dude on the Right that I wondered how they would break up a fight, probably by pulling the offenders out by their ears. More on that later.

The crowd was a mix of the biker types I would expect at a Thorogood show and what appeared to be “regulars”, many of whom seemed to know each other and attend shows here often.

Anyway, how sweet it is! Some things never change, and with George Thorogood and the Destroyers, that’s not a bad thing. The duck walk may be a little slower and he shares a lot of the guitar duties with his other guitarist, but all and all it’s the same rockin’ good time that I remember from the other times I’ve seen him.

George came out dressed in his best tuxedo t-shirt, sunglasses and bandanna. He and the Destroyers play off of each other, and always seem like they are having the time of their lives. They hit all the songs you would expect in the course of his 2 hour show, “Bad to the Bone”, “Nighttime”, “Move it on Over”, “Who Do You Love” and of course, the 20 minute ode to drinking of “I Drink Alone” and “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”.

Now back to the two linemen wedged into the seats a couple rows in front of us. The show started off with “Long Gone”, and everyone took their seats, except for the couple right in front of the afore mentioned large men, that is. Now I’ve never been one to bitch about people standing during a concert, it’s not the opera, (I’ve never actually been to the opera, but I assume they don’t stand through the whole thing.) but when everyone else is sitting you’re on your own. As you might guess the couple standing were a little over-served and they tossed a few f-bombs when people asked them to sit down.  A couple of cups got thrown, and next thing you know one of these big guys gets up and pops the drunk guy in the head. To this point I had not seen any security people in the place, but as soon as the punches started flying, security popped up, hopped in, and broke it up in a matter of minutes. This was one of the most orderly fights I have ever seen. Everyone got out of the way to let security in, they broke things up quickly, and everyone slid back in and sat back down to enjoy the show.

The high and low points of the show for me were the encore. I was really disappointed with “I Quit.” Not because of the song selection, but because George didn’t play guitar on it. His gravelly voice is still in good shape and he is a good showman, but I came to see him play damn it. He made up for my disappointment by following up with “The Sky is Cryin’.”

I think he was taunted into playing it by a fan down near the stage and Thorogood took on the challenge and shut the guy up with a blistering version of the Elmore James classic. The encore also included “Greedy Man, and “Madison Blues,” and he ended the night with a very “Reelin’ and Rockin’”-like version of “Rockin’ My Life Away.”

The opening act was Duwayne Burnside and his band, a really good 4 piece delta blues band from Mississippi. They did a nice 30 minute set, and I was actually a little disappointed they were just about yanked off stage at 8:00.

Lonesome George continues to put on a great show and gets ONE and a HALF THUMBS UP from me. It was one thumb until he stepped up on “The Sky is Cryin’” to show se still could throw down a blues jam with the best of ‘em.  Until next time, Peace Out and Hang Loose!