Doors Tribute Riders on the Storm returns to NOTL

It was originally supposed to be a one-off. But Rob Burke’s Riders on the Storm - A Live Celebration of the Doors, hitting Corks in Niagara-on-the-Lake on July 22, has taken on a life of its own.

When The Local sat down with Burke and his friends on the BarrelHead patio at Pillitteri Estates Winery in August, 2021 to talk about his upcoming show there, he explained it was basically an extension of his theatre work.

Burke had previously taken on the role of Doors lead singer Jim Morrison for his own presentation of a show called Club 27 at Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate. It was a tribute to rock stars Morrison, Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, all of whom met an untimely end at that same young age.

For the BarrelHead performance nearly two years ago, Burke assembled a group of talented musicians: drummer Devon Fornelli, bassist Tom Debatt, keyboard player Ben Phelan and Niagara-on-the-Lake native Jesse Lamothe on guitar. The show sold out in no time and the BarrelHead audience ate it up. Word got out about their authentic re-creation of Doors classics like Break on Through, Love Me Two Times, Roadhouse Blues. and others. Quite unexpectedly, requests for more gigs followed.

“We got such great feedback after Pillitteri,” Burke tells The Local. “Then we went off to play at Lock One in Port Dalhousie. It kept growing, and now we perform almost once a month, with a bit of time off in the winter. The key for us is to keep it fresh.”

That freshness Burke speaks of comes from the band changing things up show to show. From the start the singer, whose day job is with the Niagara Region in their child care programs, has been adamant that the band Riders on the Storm, tries to replicate the wild, unpredictable nature of The Doors’ live shows.

That means Burke will veer off into a poetic stream of consciousness monologue ala Morrison, or Phelan and Lamothe will replicate a long, intricate keyboard and guitar jam the way Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger of the LA-based band used to do.

Thus far, most audiences have seen only one version of the Riders on the Storm show. Like the Toronto-based outfit Classic Albums Live, Burke and the others haven’t previously attempted to look like the band to whom they are paying tribute. Instead, the focus has been on transporting their audiences musically back to the years 1966 to 1971 when The Doors were leaders in that era’s counterculture.

But a call from Angela Seeger, who portrayed Janis Joplin in Burke’s presentation of Club 27 and is in high demand around the world for her tribute acts, made Burke think about expanding into other horizons.

“She told me her agent was looking for a Jim Morrison in Mexico,” explains Burke. “I went down there and did three shows in February. It was a dinner show, with no band backing me up. I had a wig, I was in full dress, it was a one-man Jim Morrison show. The audience went crazy for it.”

That sparked a new version of the Riders on the Storm experience, with Burke fronting a band that is now visually and aurally able to recreate the full experience of a Doors live show. It will make its debut at the Corks show.

“We offer two kinds of packages now,” Burke says. “Our original version and our full dress version. The wig is not from Party City. It’s from a legit wig store. I even have a wig master who fixes it up for me. When I put it on, I really feel like Jim.”

As a theatre performer as well as the frontman of the band, Burke says he often gets lost in the Morrison persona, walking into the audience, speaking to them and tossing off jokes as the man known as the Lizard King.

At a recent performance at Sherkston Shores, a young woman that Lamothe says looked like she was about 18 years old came up to him after the band’s first set. She complained to the guitarist that his lead singer didn’t fit the group.

“He’s clearly on drugs, he’s acting like he has a huge ego and he’s being super sexual,” she told him. “It’s all really cringey.”

Lamothe explained to her who Jim Morrison was and said he would pass along her high praise to his lead singer.

“When Jesse told me that story, I thought it was so funny,” Burke laughs. “When Jim would perform he had so much confidence. He jumped around, he was wild and spontaneous. I really dig deep into that ‘wild child’ aspect of his persona. That’s my favourite Morrison, when he didn’t know exactly what he was going to do on stage.”

For the Corks show, Fornelli is unavailable, as he has been busy this summer with his other band, the Niagara Falls based six-piece Giancarlo and the Scarfones. Ben’s father Mike Phelan, a percussionist with the Niagara Symphony Orchestra and instructor at Ridley College, will fill the drum chair.

Phelan is also a veteran of the Niagara music scene going back to the late 1960s. He was a member of long-time party band Jeffrey and the Juniors and the progressive rock band NIghtwinds. He and Ben have also produced a series of tribute shows playing the music of Genesis from the band’s Peter Gabriel-fronted era.

“He was playing music back when Jim Morrison was still alive,” Burke marvels. “But he had never played in a Doors tribute before. I think this was on his bucket list, because his son is in the band. He’s so thrilled to be a part of it and he’s a great addition to the band.”

Following the July 22 NOTL performance, the band will play to what promises to likely be their biggest crowd ever at H.H. Knoll Park in Port Colborne for that city’s Canal Days Festivities. They open for their friends in Pink Floyd Niagara on Sunday, Aug. 6.

“We’re excited to be playing there, for sure,” Burke enthuses. “This will be great for our resume. We would love to play the Grape and Wine Festival and the ribfests locally, so this will convince those people we can also play to those types of crowds.”

The Canal Days crowd, however, won't get the full visual experience planned for the NOTL show.

Riders on the Storm - A Live Celebration of the Doors is scheduled for Saturday, July 22 at 8 p.m. in the upstairs theatre space at Corks. Tickets are $40 plus taxes and are available at danitix.com or alternatively, tickets can be reserved through Rob Burke by calling (289) 668-0482.  

“We plan to keep it as intimate as possible,” Burke says. “We’re only selling about 70 tickets, so they will go fast.”