The Association at City Winery: Couple of weeks ago, Karen and I got the chance to see The Association in one of their somewhat rare NY appearances. It's been a while since we last saw them at Westbury - at least several years - and as happens with the oldies groups, there have been some personnel changes, due to retirements and passings. Most recently, Larry Ramos, who'd been with the band since the early days passed away. His spot was filled by his brother, Del Ramos, who has been in the band for many years. Long time members Jules Alexander and Jim Yester, along with Jordan Cole, son of original member Brian Cole, and drummer Bruce Pictor round up the current lineup.
After an opening act that was about as far different from The Association as you could imagine (a depressing 'suicide song' folksinger), the band hit the stage for a very solid hour and a half show. They ran through all the hits, and sounded very strong on all of them. Their instrument work was solid, and vocally they were very close to the sound of the original group. "Never My Love", "Along Comes Mary", "Windy", "Cherish", and my favorite "Everything That Touches You" "Six Man Band", "Goodbye Columbus" were all well done. A medley of 60's hits, and some album cuts rounded out a very impressive show.
City Winery is a great, smallish venue in Chelsea, great acoustics and sight lines, and a decent menu. Wonderful place to grab a burger or a flatbread pizza and see a show. Highly recommended for a reasonably priced night in Manhattan.
"Hot Autumn Nights" at Westbury: And the oldies just keep on coming! The Saturday before Thanksgiving found us at the NYCB Theater at Westbury for this annual show. We've seen all of these acts many times in the past, and a couple of them are ones that we really like to see whenever we get the chance, as they have a great catalog of hits, and always do a great show.
Opening the night were The Buckinghams, with original members Carl Giammerese and Nick Fortuna, who've been carrying the torch since the late 1990's. Along with long time member Bruce Soboroff, and newer members Dave Zane and Rocky Penn, they sounded great. Carl's voice is a little softer (and more on key) than original lead Dennis Tufano, and the songs sound damn close to the originals.
Only thing I notice is that since they lost drummer Tom Schekel to Paul Revere & The Raiders a few years back, Rocky's drumming is more pedestrian than Tom's was; less rolls and staggered hits, which were kind of a trademark of their sound. Still, the hits sound great, and they got the crowd into the show early with a cover of Van Morrison's "Domino" and the sing along to "Susan". By the time they closed with "Kind Of A Drag", all was right in the theater.
Up next were "The Grass Roots", which I've put in parentheses, since the people on stage bore no resemblance to the real Grass Roots. As way of explanation, the Grass Roots were, much like The Monkees, a group assembled by the writers and producers of the songs they were given to perform. Through the years, over 50 musicians and singers have been in the group. Their most successful years, however, featured lead singer Rob Grill.
The guys on stage this time were lead guitarist and vocalist Dusty Hanvey, keyboardist Larry Nelson (both of whom 'joined' in 1984), drummer Joe Dougherty ('joined' in 1990), and lead singer and bassist Mark Dawson ('joined' in 2008). Now, if you look at the chart history of this band, their last successful record was "Two Divided by Love" in 1971 - 13 years before Hanvey and Nelson started performing with Rob Grill.I understand that as individuals pass on, either new members have to be brought in to keep the music going, or we lose the ability to enjoy these acts 'live'. My issue is that when there are NO original members in the band, it isn't "The Grass Roots", it's "The Grass Roots Tribute", and should be advertised as such. These guys played the songs very well, Hanvey's backing vocals mirror the records pretty well, and Dawson has some vocal range as well. The hits sounded great, but you know, there are plenty of bar bands that can play "Midnight Confessions" and sound great as well. Time for these promoters to start being honest with us as to who's really on stage when we plunk down our money!
Up next, Herman's Hermits featuring Peter Noone. Now here we have a group where the original backing musicians have all passed on, but the lead singer is still going strong - VERY strong! Backed by a great band featuring Vance Brescia (of the legendary NY band The Mosquitos) on guitar, this is a real high energy group that recreates the fun and excitement of the original British Invasion acts. Peter reminds me of the late Davy Jones with his boundless energy and romps around the stage. He rarely stood still, and really had the crowd worked up during his set.
The music was great, Peter's vocals are still strong, and overall, this might have been the best act of the night. With an amazing string of hit records, Peter and the guys could have stayed out on stage a lot longer than they did, they didn't get to all of their hits, but they did most of them, and did them well. We just noticed that Peter and the band are playing at BB King's in Manhattan on Feb. 6, and decided to go - yes, they're that much fun to see!
Closing the show was Tommy James and The Shondells. Tommy's been the headliner on these shows for a long time, and always closes the show. Unfortunately, there are only a few acts that could have followed Peter Noone that night, and Tommy isn't one of them. They started out well, with a great version of "Draggin The Line", but things bogged down quickly with a slow, acoustic version of "I Think We're Alone Now" which Tommy did as a tribute to the late Morris Levy, who owned Roulette Records, the label Tommy had all the hits on. It was done also to help promote Tommy's book and upcoming movie, "Me, The Music, & The Mob".
Unfortunately, after the high energy that Peter brought to the stage, this ill timed song really killed the crowd. As he (finally) finished the tune, several folks yelled out "Do it like the record" - which seemed to throw Tommy for a loop. The rest of his set was, unfortunately, nothing special, even though he did Hanky Panky, Crimson & Clover, and he threw in a 'proper' version of I Think We're Alone Now. We noticed that for some reason, the bass player and drummer had a particular shuffle type rhythm, which made all of the songs sound the same. Mony Mony couldn't even get the crowd up, and while we never leave early, as Tommy went 'round and 'round the stage shaking hands, we exited.
So, three pretty good acts and one disappointment. And a really surprising disappointment, as Tommy usually hammers the show closed with a great performance. Perhaps he was 'off' or a bit tired, but it wasn't the Tommy James we've come to expect.
That's more than enough for today, I'll try to catch you all up on the couple of short road trips I had over the past few weeks in the next day or two.
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