Roger Hodgson; Keswick Theater Glenside, PA 11/20/12

[jimmy19029]

After seeing Roger here in 1998 all by his lonesome on stage and last year in Atlantic City with woodwinds/keys player Aaron MacDonald accompanying, Roger has taken it a step further this year to recreate the full Supertramp lineup sound of yore by adding three additional players. And very nice to see him play here in America with a full band.

The musicians Roger has added are very meticulous in getting the songs/sounds as close to the original records as possible...even down to the soprano recorder's shrill blast at the end of "Sister Moonshine", played by MacDonald. Of course, Supertramp, who were often criticized for sticking a bit TOO close to the album versions, would sometimes change up things up on stage, with slightly louder Hammond organ punctuation on the verses for "Dreamer", for example, and I missed Supertramp drummer Bob Siebenberg's much more aggressive attack on the drum fills on "Lady" and "Dreamer". But Bryan Head (formerly of Foreigner) was no slouch at all on drums and was very satisfying to these ears. Also quite nice to hear the Rick Davies organ sound brought back by Kevin Adamson and I wanted to hear even more.

Roger chose to advertise this tour as the BREAKFAST IN AMERICA TOUR to give potential ticket buyers a better idea of who he is. It must've worked since this show was close to being a sellout...quite a contrast to the show I saw here in 1998 where he drew maybe 40 people tops. Even at last year's show at the Shore, there were alot of empty seats.

DJ Michael Tearson was out at 7:45 to introduce Roger and was recalling Supertramp's very first show in Philly at the Erlanger Theater back in 1975.

After opening with "Take the Long Way Home", Roger pretended to scold several late arrivals by saying, "You're late. You missed the best song. And I'm not doing it again." When a few others got up to head for the lobby, he laughed, "Don't leave!" Then he noted that back in his shyer Supertramp days, other than singing, he barely said "boo" into a microphone. "Now you can't shut me up"!

"Easy Does It" had many in the audience, myself included, helping along with the opening whistling and Roger thankfully went back to "Rosie Had Everything Planned" in his second set after his guitar was not in tune at the end of set one.

Set two opened with "Child of Vision" from Breakfast in America and I felt as if it was 1979 again and I was at a Supertramp show. Roger looks great and not all that different from the way he was back in the 70s.

He talked about his 2000 album, Open the Door, being recorded in France and only released there. "That was a mistake to only put it out there. Not too many of you have it", he laughed. "It is a good CD though." He played the eerie "Death and a Zoo" from that one and the unreleased "The Awakening", which has been in his sets for about 15 years now.

Most of his shows this year have been concluding with encores of "Two of Us", Give a Little Bit" and "It's Raining Again". But tonight, we treated to just "Give a Little Bit". And I'm sure "Raining" was left out for obvious reasons, as this show was a reschedule from the week of Hurricane Sandy.



Roger's band:

Aaron MacDonald - saxophones, woodwinds, harmonica, keyboards, synths, percussion, backing vocals

Bryan Head - drums, percussion

David J. Carpenter - bass, backing vocals

Kevin Adamson - keyboards, synths, backing vocals


01 - Take the Long Way Home
02 - School
03 - In Jeopardy
04 - Lovers in the Wind
05 - Breakfast in America
06 - Easy Does It
07 - Sister Moonshine
08 - A Soapbox Opera
09 - Lady
10 - Logical Song

11 - Child of Vision
12 - Rosie Had Everything Planned
13 - Lord is it Mine
14 - Death and a Zoo
15 - If Everyone Was Listening
16 - The Awakening
17 - Don't Leave Me Now
18 - Dreamer
19 - Fools Overture

20 - Give a Little Bit