Huey Lewis performs on the Coca-Cola stage during the opening night of Riverbend.Long before they took the stage as the first headliner of the 30th annual Riverbend Festival, the Coca-Cola Stage lawn already was well saturated with stalwart fans of Huey Lewis and the News.
Few could claim to have as good a spot to hear the San Francisco-based Lewis’ celebrated rock harmonica playing as Mary and Tom Schultz, who secured prime real estate on a hill just to the right of center of the Coca-Cola Stage.
Mary Schultz said she’s waited 25 years for a chance to hear Lewis. The performance was bound to be great, even if Lewis didn’t perform hits such as “Heart of Rock & Roll” and “Hip to Be Square,” she said.
“It doesn’t even matter to me what he sings,” Schultz said from the shade of her umbrella. “Everything he does is good. [Hearing him] was on my bucket list. I’d wait two days for this.”
Schultz may not have cared whether Lewis’ set hit his career high notes, but he offered them up nonetheless, starting with “Heart of Rock & Roll” followed by “You Crack Me Up.”