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Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings are touring under The Guess Who name for the first time in 23 years
Published May 31, 2026 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 3 minute read
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Randy Bachman, left, and Burton Cummings, shown performing as The Guess Who in Moncton, N.B., brought their show to the Scotiabank Arena on Saturday night. Photo by COREY KELLY /HANDOUTArticle content
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The Guess Who
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Scotiabank Arena
Saturday night
RATING: *** (3out of four)
Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman first started coming to play in Toronto in 1967 as The Guess Who.
“Back when the Royal York Hotel was the tallest building,” said Cummings, 78, seated at his keyboards at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday night alongside Bachman, 82, who played guitar while seated on a chair alongside five other touring musicians.
Almost 60 years later, the songwriting duo, who originally hail from Winnipeg, were back in “the big city” — as Cummings called it — professionally as The Guess Who for the first time in 23 years after years of legal wrangling to get their name back in a copyright dispute.
They’ve been touring on and off during the last two decades as Bachman-Cummings.
The close to two-hour show was part history lesson, part Can-rock celebration of their band name being restored so we got to hear how some of the classic Guess Who songs came together. which songs meant the most to them, and the one that changed their lives.
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On the latter front, that would be These Eyes, which they brought out early in their set.
Laughing, Cummings told us, was written on a ferry ride from Victoria to Vancouver and gave them a gold record in the U.S., making them the first Canadian band to do so, and was presented to them by Dick Clark.
Opening the night with the instrumental 969 (The Oldest Man), the first song on the second side of their 1970 breakthrough album, American Woman, meant Cummings broke out a flute solo early.
He’d revisit the instrument again later during Come Undun and Bachman remarked: “Let’s hear it for the flute solo!”
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BTO hits as well-received as The Guess Who songs
Maybe not surprisingly, barnburners by Bachman Turner Overdrive (the band Bachman formed post-The Guess Who) like Let It Ride, You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, and the show-ending Takin’ Care of Business went over just as well, if not better, than some of The Guess Who songs.
Some notable exceptions were American Woman, which got the entire crowd on its feet after a long intro via The Doors’ Roadhouse Blues, along with No Sugar Tonight/Mother Nature and No Time, the latter which Bachman called his “absolute favourite” from The Guess Who catalogue.
When they returned for their encore of Share The Land, written by Cummings during what he called his “hippie days,” the singer reminded us how lucky we were to be living in Canada, before the band ended the night with Takin’ Care of Business.
Cummings’ solo My Own Way to Rock was another crowd-pleaser and even if his voice has become more reedy and nasal sounding as he’s aged, he can still play the piano like a mad man.
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Rounding out The Guess Who were guitarists-vocalists Tim Bovaconti and Joe Augello, bassist-vocalist Jeff Jones, drummer-vocalist Sean Fitzsimons and percussionist-vocalist Nick Sinopoli.
Upping the classic rock ante on Saturday night was singer-guitarist Don Felder, 78, who served as a member of The Eagles for 27 years.
Felder delivered a solid 45-minute opening set largely made up of tunes by his former band and reminded us why his guitar solos were so crucial to the group’s success on such Eagles classics as One Of These Nights and Hotel California (he got his double-necked guitar for the latter).
He and his three-piece band also delivered sweet-sounding harmonies on Seven Bridges Road.
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SET LIST:
969 (The Oldest Man)
Proper Stranger
Hand Me Down World
These Eyes
Albert Flasher
Let It Ride
Clap for the Wolfman
Laughing
Guns Guns Guns
Undun
Star Baby
You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet
My Own Way to Rock
A Wednesday in Your Garden
American Woman
No Sugar Tonight / New Mother Nature
No Time
ENCORE:
Share the Land
Takin’ Care of Business
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