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Chuck Berry
BB King's Blues Club, New York, NY
 Once again, B.B. King's booked a founding father of rock 'n' roll, and a house packed with fans of all ages enthusiastically paid homage. When Chuck Berry took the stage, time seemed to stand still. As the 83-year-old, looking as trim and handsome as he did 40 years ago, twanged the opening riff to Roll Over Beethoven, decades became irrelevant.
Berry's performance covered most of his hits—16 songs in all—and interwove bits and pieces of tunes with his own salty patter. The performance resembled a sound check in the best sense of the word—relaxed, effortless and pervaded by a warm camaraderie. Berry enlisted the crowd on "My Ding A Ling," but even without prompting he enjoyed plenty of audience participation. With the death of Bo Diddley only days before, Berry recalled Bo and Ike Turner, clearly shaken by the loss of his fellow founding fathers.
Though Berry sings a bit slower, duckwalks a bit higher and goes up on his lyrics more often than he did in the '60s, the miracle is that he clearly remains The Chuck Berry, an architect and elder statesman of an important genre, doing what he does best: rock on.
—Suzanne Cadgene
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