Riders On The Storm are the latest name for the reformed Doors, who also went by the awkward name of The Doors of the 21st Century, but with a different lead singer. This was their third appearance in Manitoba, with the first two being at a rural rock festival and the second being at the MTS Centre arena. The latter venues holds around 16,300 for concerts but the band played in the Burton Cummings Theatre, which holds almost a tenth at 1646 seats. The venue looked like it had 1000 people or less but I stand to be corrected.

Lead singer Brett Scallions is no Jim Morrison, but he put a fair bit of effort into the show. Ray Manzarek and Robby Kreiger were the stars and they played like the masters they are. Krieger looked like a corpse and sounded like he had some kind of cerebral palsy when he introduced Manzarek, but he played the guitar beautifully. He even did some finger tapping like Eddie Van Halen. Who came up with it first?

This one young woman sitting near me brought a mirror and held it up as she bounded up and down, possibly hoping to be spotted from the stage. She looked like she would lose control of the thing, the size of a small dinner plate, and smack some guy on the head. Later, she strolled on stage and hugged the singer and dropped to her knees to simulate oral sex on him. At that point, she was escorted off the stage. She appeared again and this time, it appeared that she and her boyfriend were both thrown out.

Prior to the headliners arriving on stage, a couple of seemingly teenage girls got up and danced like maniacs to the swing music, in front of the stage, at the left side. When they were finished, the audience actually applauded for the them! Towards the end of the show, one of them walked on stage, hugged the lead singer and was given his tambourine to play along with the band. She was kicked off the stage whenever she came into the view of the security, but so long as she bopped hidden behind some speakers, she was okay to be on the stage.

Highlights included "LA Woman", "Riders on the Storm", and "Light My Fire", all of which evolved into extended jams. When I closed my eyes, I didn't care for one second that I was seeing a Morrison-less Doors. The jamming was exceptional and magnificent. Pure bliss.

Joining Manzarek (a veritable madman who played the keyboards with his feet a few times), Kreiger, and Scallions were Phil Chenn from Jamaica (who recorded on Jeff Beck's Blow By Blow), and drummer Ty Dennis.

Openers The Bangkok Five from LA , came across as Aerosmith clones, but were very energetic and won the crowd over.

Set list:
O Fortuna intro
Love Me Two Times
Break On Through
Strange Days
Roadhouse Blues
Waiting For The Sun
When The Music's Over
Spanish Caravan
Peace Frog/Blue Sunday
Love Her Madly
Five To One
Touch Me
LA Woman

Encore:
Riders on the Storm
Soul Kitchen
Light My Fire

My rating for this show is .