Wednesday night’s concert at McElroy Auditorium in Waterloo was a meeting of two classic groups who just happen to have different line-ups than those who made them famous.

The only original Steppenwolf member in attendance was lead singer John Kay. The only original Credence Clearwater Revival members in the auditorium were bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford.

It became apparently obvious Kay did not need the rest of the original line-up to rock-and-roll. The band’s forty-five minute set was excellent, from the beginning riffs of “Sookie, Sookie” to the last rumblings of “Born To Be Wild.”

Both of these songs did not disappoint in the slightest. The latter was especially good, with a long keyboard solo leading into it (the group had enough keyboard equipment to fill a semi-truck and it took up half the stage) and an extended jam in the middle.

Kay showed his voice was still in great shape during the band’s cover of Willie Dixon’s “Backdoor Man.” The group also played a fairly long version of “Magic Carpet Ride” that was a bit disappointing because of its lack of ferocity.

Before C.C.R. took the stage, talk of the crowd was concentrated on if the legendary swamp rockers could possibly be any good without former lead vocalist John Fogerty and former guitarist Tom Fogerty.

I, too, had my doubts. When Cook told me during our phone interview that he had replaced the Fogertys with an unknown lead vocalist, John Tristao, and former Cars’ guitarist Elliot Easton, I thought he was out of his mind.

I am ecstatic to say I was wrong. Way wrong.

Tristao can very easily sing circles around John Fogerty. He has the same vocal sound as Fogerty, kind of whiny and high pitched, but is able to transcend the narrow vocal range which plagued Fogerty. Tristao is an absolutely amazing singer and C.C.R. is much better without Fogerty.

In fact, a large portion of the crowd started chanting “Fuck Fogerty!” and “Fogerty who?” as soon as they heard how much better Tristao was (which C.C.R. pointed out with glee).

Fogerty didn’t want to have anything to do with the group and now it definitely doesn’t need him. It seems kind of fitting.

Was Easton as good as the late, great Tom Fogerty? By far, we’re talking the distance of the sun from Pluto. The things that Easton was able to do with his guitar were absolutely spectacular.

He played every hit song note perfect and was allowed several very long solos throughout the night. I had to pinch myself during his solos to make sure that C.C.R. wasn’t jamming with Jimi Hendrix that night, he was that good.

Cook and Clifford haven’t mellowed with age, either. They play better now than they did when the band was in its heyday back in the ’60s. It was obvious that the band was having a lot of fun playing the music that it loved.

C.C.R. played every single one of its hits contained on “Chronicle” in a set which lasted a little over two hours and encompassed not one, but two encores. The stage banter was cut to the barest minimum so the music could do the talking.

And the music had volumes to say. Every song the group played was far better than the original studio recordings.

Among the many, many highlights of the evening were spectacular versions of “Midnight Special,” “Hey Tonight,” “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” and “Commotion.”

“Proud Mary,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Green River” and “Travelin’ Band” (among at least a dozen other great songs) had the entire audience dancing and singing along.

But the most mind-boggling songs were “Susie Q,” “I Put A Spell On You” and “Heard It Through The Grapevine,” which all clocked in at over ten minutes apiece.

Each featured Tristao’s considerable vocal talent and highly entertaining stage antics, Easton’s painfully beautiful guitar work, excellent drumming from Clifford and great bass courtesy of Cook.

The songs were special because each one turned into a long jam that would have made the Grateful Dead or Phish jealous. Considering that the new C.C.R. has only been playing together for a few years now, the sound was exceptionally tight.

Most groups that have been playing together for twenty years seldom achieve the ability to play together in this fashion.

To put the concert in perspective, I’ll leave you with the thoughts of my dad, who attended the concert with me.

He has seen almost every legendary musician or band there is in concert (Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, etc., etc.,) at least once.

He thought that Wednesday night’s concert was the best one that he had seen in his entire life.

I’d have to agree with him. I don’t think I will ever see another concert as great as this one was.