After thirty odd years in the biz George Thorogood is still a bad ass guitar slinger and the Destroyers (featuring Jeff Simon on drums and Billy Blough on bass) definitely live up to their name. George and the band slayed the Vernon Westbild Arena on Sunday night with a two hour show of nothing but full throttle rock and roll.

“What kind of seats do we have?” I asked Lisa, my beloved partner. “On the floor somewhere.” She replied. Turns out the floors were general admission standing and since we arrived way early we were front and center for the action. It doesn't get any better folks.

Who Do You Love, Get a Haircut, Gear Jammer, Move It On Over, Night Time, One Bourbon One Scotch and One Beer, If You Don‘t Start Drinkin… hit after hit just kept rolling out with George doing his signature moves on his signature Gibson ES-125. Dotted here and there in the set were a few new songs from the new CD, The Dirty Dozen most notably Born Lover and Tail Dragger. Born Lover is about sex as far as I could tell from the first time I heard it and Tail Dragger is… also about sex. Never accuse George of not being focused. How did the audience feel about the new material? Let's just say George is now in competition with Tom Jones for a ladies under garment collection. “No Lisa, I wasn’t looking at that red head when she flashed her abundant hootage.” (I wasn’t looking at her head anyways).

For the first encore George blasted into ba ba ba Bad to the Bone. For their second encore the Delaware Destroyer’s (kinda but not really new) sideman Jim Suhlar (who joined the band in 99) led the last round with a vicious intro for You Talk Too Much. The newest member of the band saxophonist Buddy Leach rounded out the band perfectly not only by adding to the already booming rhythm section but with plenty of sweet solos as well.

This was George Thorogood’s first time in Vernon, BC. He and his band and his warm up act JJ Grey, were loving it. And so was the crowd. George doesn’t consider himself any kind of musical genious, he prefers, “clever.” At one point after a searing slide guitar assault George looked out into the audience and said, “Pretty good eh?” Good? That’s not what I would have said. I would have said nothing less than “great!”