The 16th annual Hootenanny at the Oak Canyon Ranch in Irvine, California, took place this last Saturday and was set to feature a “Battle of the Champions”, Chuck Berry vs. Jerry Lee Lewis, both artists who have previously performed on the Hootenanny stage years prior, but not today.

For those who saw the other half of the headliner for the day, Chuck Berry, it was possibly a bit more disappointing than expected as a good performance could have saved the night but – well – it just didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, if the “awe factor” never left you – then it could have been the performance of the year… But once the awe factor left you could easily notice Chuck just wasn’t on his “A game” tonight, to say the least.

Between trying to tune his guitar while playing, to consulting his temporary walk-on band (whom it appeared has never played with Chuck Berry before) on what songs to play next and how to play them, the performance was sloppy to say the least. If you closed your eyes and listened to the music you could tell something was off, let alone watching it.

This pioneer of rock and roll music made some fans happy, asking the security guards to get some girls on stage to dance for him – but other than that and for Chuck’s hardcore fans, there wasn’t much excitement for everybody else.

Aside from Chuck’s stage performance, the concert lacked elsewhere also. He didn’t sing many classic hits – in fact, I am willing to bet his hour long performance was half that if I actually looked at my clock as there were MANY hit songs missing from the night..

The crowd was excited earlier in the day with a performance from Los Angeles local punk/ Rockabilly group the Three Bad Jacks, whom let Chuck Berry borrow their drummer later in the night. They got the group excited in their 30 minute set with songs like “Crazy in The head” and “Remember the nights”. “Hellbound Train” got the crowd jumping and the pit larger than it has been all day, though still small and tame by all accounts.

Nick 13 also performed and had no shortage of fans. He announced that he is making a new solo album on his own which KROQ has confirmed just earlier today. The Koffin Kats, who came out with their hard in your face music, had the crowd excited with “Graveyard Tree” and “Perfect Suicide”. The day had a bit of everything with Waylong Jennings pleasing the country folk and exciting even the younger crowd with a rock-ish rendition of “Rainy Day Woman”.

Aside from a few fights that almost broke out (and the reason for them not wasn’t the security guards, whom were scared, but the girls of the guys involved), and Jerry Lee Lewis not appearing (and no real announcement), the day was quite fun.

Till next time.