Bad Company?

Well, they did pretty good business, actually.

Saw the ’70s band Bad Company on Friday night at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood. The original members, Mick Ralphs, Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke (bassist Boz Burrell died last year), did a one-time-only show, apparently to maintain their trademark or something, though Ralphs has his own version of "Bad Company" that tours in the UK.

My brother Steve and I caught Rodgers and his band after a Marlins baseball game a few months ago, and couldn't believe how great Paul still sounded— as good as ever, actually.

Steve was and is a big fan of Free, the group that preceded Bad Company (remember "All Right Now"?), so when I caught wind of this show, I got a pair of tix for us. It was allegedly recorded for a DVD, too. Cool.

Pretty good show; no big musical surprises, of course. Everyone sounded solid and Howard Leese from Paul Rodgers' band, whom I'd seen with Paul at that post-game gig, was second guitarist, filling out the sound quite nicely.

I expected the audience to be the usual, mostly male classic rock suspects, but was shocked to see how many women were there, up and dancing. Most were with husbands or whomever, but a fair number were apparently unattached, too, or in pairs.

One woman in the row in front of ours danced throughout the set. She had a big smile on her face, and was no kid, though probably quite a cutie back in the day. Her beefy and implacable husband resisted her entreaties to join her free-form rockin', but received an approximation of a lap dance from her during the last song, so maybe he knew what he was doing.

(Made me recall the Roberrt Christgau review of, I think their second album, which he referred to as "odes to peripatetic priapism.")

Still, I was a little surprised to see so many women into Bad Company and tried to imagine some of 'em about thirty years earlier. Nice distraction! (My own dear wife was home, by the way.)

Next day, I downloaded a live set from 1976 that came out last year but was withdrawn. They hadn't missed a beat.

For those who care about such things, here's the setlist from Friday night:
Bad Company
Honey Child
Sweet Little Sister
Burnin' Sky
Gone Gone Gone
Running With The Pack
Live For The Music
Seagull
Feel Like Makin' Love
Movin' On
Simple Man
Rock Steady
Shooting Star
Rock and Roll Fantasy
Ready For Love
Good Lovin' Gone Bad
Deal With The Preacher