Foghat To Play Bethlehem Music Fest This Weekend
by Alex Lloyd Gross
PHOTO BY ALEX LLOYD GROSS DELAWARE VALLEY NEWS.COM FOGHAT
Iconic rockers Foghat will be at the Bethlehem Music Fest Sunday, Aug 11, 2024 and Foghat guitarist Bryan Bassett is excited for it. When they played in Atlantic City , they brought out a song from Bassett’s old group, Wild Cherry. “Play That Funky Music White Boy”, and according to Bassett, that song will again get played Sunday. “It’s funny, we talked about putting that in there. We used to do a little snippet on it just when we did the band introductions , it’s not a Foghat song but it’s a song that everybody knows,” Bassett said.
This is not a greatest hits show. They have new music out, a new record called Sonic Mojo, which made it’s debut at number one on the Billboard Blues charts. “It was on there for 27 weeks in the top 10,” Bassett said.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo-Delaware Valley News.com Bryan Bassett
According to Bassett, Foghat has been doing a lot of outdoor shows and festivals. They are attracting younger fans , thanks to Guitar Hero that had “Slow Ride” as a feature. The biggest selling Foghat record is the original live record. “Everyone was coming out with great live records around that time, Peter Frampton, just about everybody and those live records captured that live feel that is hard to capture in the studio,” Bassett said.
Some bands do not want to be bothered meeting fans. “For us we love to meet fans, and we sometimes see some fans over again and it’s really great , it’s the least we can do,” he said.
Bassett is originally from Pennsylvania, albeit the Pittsburgh area. As a teenager he worked on the grounds crew of Three River Stadium. Now, grounds crews get arenas ready for him. Foghat gets to play all types of shows from festivals to casinos. “With casino’s,they want you off stage in about an hour, so the audience can go out and gamble. “Roger likes to say that we’ll give back half the money if we can play longer and they always say no”, Bassett joked.