January 24, 2013

Ian Hunter at Lee's Palace

I guess it would be an understatement to say that Ian Hunter is something of a rock legend. He's 73 years old and has played with the likes of Mott the Hoople and had a long and illustrious solo career. His hits have included "All the Young Dudes", "Just Another Night", "Cleveland Rocks", "Once Bitten Twice Shy" and more than a few of his tunes have been hits for other artists.
He treated Toronto to a great show at Lee's Palace at the beginning of December. A friend and I attended the show, finding ourselves probably the youngest guys in the room. This was a great juxtaposition to the Japandroids show we would catch the next week where we were not quite, but pretty close to being, the oldest ones in the crowd.

Ian hit up a packed set with a band of obviously seasoned veteran players. He apologized for not having been back to Toronto in 11 years, and mentioned that "If you don't recognize the song, it's a new one".
Here's "Just Another Night" on American TV. Yee haw!

And I couldn't get away without putting up the David Bowie-penned "All the Young Dudes" by Mott the Hoople.

And here's the title track from his latest album When I'm President. It's his 14th album!

Devin Cuddy, son of Blue Rodeo singer Jim Cuddy, did a good but largely-ignored job opening the night with his solo-piano blues. Here's some stuff to check out.


The live pics are my own shots from the show. Not that anyone else would want them.