On Wednesday, July 21, 2010, I was fortunate enough to find myself at the Paramount Center for the Arts (a.k.a. the Paramount Theater) in Peekskill, NY for the Happy Together Tour 25th Anniversary show. This was the second show of the second leg of the tour, which had actually begun at the end of May and took a month hiatus before continuing.
The tour itself is comprised of several notable American bands from the 1960s, or rather the remenants of such bands. The stars of the show included the following former pop stars:
Carl Giammarese & Nick Fortuna of the Buckinghams
Rob Grill of The Grass Roots
Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders
Micky Dolenz of the Monkees
Mark Volman & Howard Kaylan (a.k.a. Flo & Eddie) of the Turtles
Backing for this "band of lead singers" was the Godfrey Townsend Band, with Townsend on guitar, who had once been a member of the John Entwistle Band (yes, that John Entwistle, the now-deceased bassist of the Who) and has worked with many other notable acts including Jack Bruce of Cream, Jeff Beck, and Alan Parsons. The rest of the band includes John Montagna on bass, Steve Murphy on drums, and Manny Focarazzo on keyboard, all excellent musicians.
The show itself was highly entertaining. The Buckinghams and Grass Roots put on great performances with their top hits (a favorite of mine was the latter's "Let's Live for Today"). Mark Lindsay brought amazing energy to the stage, bouncing around with liveliness that would be impressive for a man in his 30s, let alone Lindsay's actual age nearing 70. At one memorable moment during a rendition of the Kingsmen's legendary tune "Louie Louie," Lindsay led the band into brief spurts of more well-known 60s hits by their British counterparts: Townsend broke into the riff from "Sunshine of Your Love;" Montagna did a nearly perfect copy of the bass solo from "My Generation;" Focarazzo tinkered out "Gimme Some Lovin';" and Murphy beat out what my father lovingly refers to as "Ringo's only solo" from "The End."
Following a brief intermission, the show continued with Micky Dolenz, who put on an admirably cheerful performance of his former hits, although his voice was clearly not up to par and one particularly painful moment occured during his version of the Beatles classic "Oh, Darling" when he was unable to reach the high note and his voice obviously broke a bit. But his humor prevailed and he ended his set with "I'm a Believer," remarking "Tell your kids that I did this before Shrek." The final act was Flo & Eddie, whose humorous antics and jokes were an appropriate end to a show performed by men who have no problem performing for fans long after their brief stardom had settled into music history. These acts know they're not the mega bands of their generation, but continue to perform and bring back memories to America's baby-boomers with their hits. Anyway, a Turtles favorite of mine, "Elenore" made me bounce in my seat, much to my father's chagrin. What can I say? He just hates the word "swell." Naturally, the show concluded with a roudy rendition of "Happy Together."
But perhaps the best part of the show was watching the audience react to these legends from their past. Although I'm only a young woman (nearing 22, for anyone curious), the majority of the audience consisted of middle aged Boomers reliving their adolescence. There is a certain joy in watching a random woman dancing wildly in the front row, singing along to the men she likely admired on the covers of her Tiger Beat magazines when she was thirteen. For me, these songs are catchy songs that I appreciate as a lover of what has been deemed "classic rock" and "oldies," but for the older members of the audience, these songs marked key moments in their pasts (dates, concerts, dances, weddings, etc.) Or for someone like my father, who listened to these songs but was just slightly too young to have seen these bands live at their height, such an endeavor as the Happy Together Tour offers a second chance to see bands that had only formerly existed on 45s and black & white television clips (which are now available to the likes of my generation thanks to sites like Youtube.)
Overall, the show, including its cheesy moments (such as a feigned "heated rivalry" between Dolenz and Lindsay concerning the song "I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone"), was a great escape and I'm hoping that the tour will come to the area again next year.
