WPCNR Record Review Board by Big Melvin Mead of Your
Sunday Night Rock N Roll Party. October 1, 2007:
Suzi The K’s (K for Katz) Swinging Soiree
brought the children of the 60s – old, young and just
born – swarming into Tarrytown Sunday night, turning the
Westchester’s treasure of a Theater, the Tarrytown Music
Hall into a time machine. A milling, good-natured,
packed house grooved, weaved, frugged, and sang along
with The Lovin Spoonful and The Grassroots. The icon
groups dazzled practicing hippies, yuppies, peaceniks,
and hipsters in the Westco Productions premier new
Gold Star Series bringing the legendary performers of
our lives to Westchester audiences.
The Spoonful thrilled the
crowd with their hits that just kept on coming,
beginning with "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?”
that got you shifting your shoulders. Photos,
Courtesy Westco Productions.
The
Grassroots Get The Crowd Up Into the Aisles with
Midnight Confessions.
Back were the
ripping thrilling guitar riffs from the legends, Steve
Boone and Jerry Yester with the infectious rocking and
rolling Joe Butler -- who just has to dance --
vocalizing and tambourining and mandolining just having
too much fun, backed by the thundering, driving drums of
Mike Arturi that echoed out onto Main Street.
Arturi pounded
out a 10-minute drum solo in midshow that was awesome
making those skins talk – like a train picking up steam,
conjuring lusty tempting rat-a-tat-tat beat with a
symbol bed that fascinated and commanded – by far one
of the most amazing drummers I’ve ever heard and a
sequence to be seen to be believed. He’s easily the
best drummer since Charlie Watts. And Arturi has played
with the best of them on Dick Clark's Rock and Roll
Revival Shows. Boone’s and Yester’s guitar beats solos
and gutbass thrilled the soul, making those guitars
sing. It was sensory overload for an old rock and
roller.
Spoonful
drummer Mike Arturi’s take-no-prisoners backbeats hit
those skins so hard, that Grassroots drummer Joe
Daugherty had to have a snare stand replaced! That’s how
great the big beat was. Today’s drums can’t take the
punishment of true pounders like Arturi and Dougherty.
Arturi of the Spoonful and Joe Dougherty of The
Grassroots really know how to laydown a backbeat.
Westco
and White Plains' Own Susan Katz, "Suzie The K"
backstage with The Lovin Spoonful, left to right Drummer
Mike Arturi, Joe Butler, Jerry Yester and Phil Smith.
Interestingly Joe Butler and Ms. Katz's husband, Peter
Katz both graduated from Great Neck High School. Below
Suzi the K clowns with The Grassroots, left to right,
Keyboardist Larry Nelson, Rob Grill, Suzi The K, Drummer
Joe Dougherty, and guitarist Dusty Hauvey. Dusty
punctuates Rob Grill's hysterical one-liners during the
show with a great Black Power salute.
The two groups
mastered their hits -- sounding better than the original
records -- not losing anything to 40 years on the road
were brought together as the premier rock and roll
doubleheader concert of the new Westco Productions fall
season. Westco brought these consistent
hit-after-hit-makers of the 60s, into the 843-seat
122-year old venue that has hosted the Foys, Al Jolson,
the Cohans and icons of entertainment but it’s never
rocked like this. The guitars and solid beats (unheard
in today’s music) got into the audiences’ blood and
bodies and made them feel like they used to feel all
over again.
One thing the
music of the Lovin Spoonful and the Grassroots did on
the top 40 radio of 50 years ago was it was music you
related to. The sung in perfect pitch to the young
person’s anxieties, feelings, and desperation in the
songs they wrote and how they sang them, while their
instrumentation made you want to move. And they were
especially great live. The audience moved again Sunday
night! They sang along, filled in on choruses -- it was
a love-in!
The
TMH was transformed into a reincarnation of the Fillmore
East. Audience heads were bobbing, hands clapping,
jean-clad women with those elliptical metal chain belts
were back! The bodies were weaving in the aisles –
shoulders shifting. At the he bring-down-the-house
conclusion of the Grassroots set, a group of what had to
be former Shindig dancers were frugging and
monkeying in the wings of the balcony – including The
Man in the Red Nehru Suit dancing in front of the stage.
The Return of The Man in the
Red Nehru Suit!
The Spoonful
have so many hits to remember and backed by the
bodylifting percussion of Arturi they lift you out of
your seat. A moving moment was a tribute to the troops
stationed in Iraq and an ode to the Vietnam veterans
when they sang “Be Home Soon.” They concluded the show
with their sigmature song, "Do You Believe in Magic?"
and cruised on out with their encore, a new song called
Freeboys -- get it! "Freeboys" has monster guitar riffs
in it that are just made for cruising down the highway!
After a
30-minute break, the audience was lured back in by The
Grassroots’ 60s group. These guys Larry Nelson, Dusty
Harvey and drummer Joe Dougherty and Rob Grill ambled
informally on stage, plucked a few notes and eased into
a psychedelically inspired warmup interlude, subtlely
raising the audience’s expectations with a most unusual
flight into imagination. When Larry Nelson, the Roots
keyboard specialist announced, “Now from Los Angeles,
recording artists, TheGrassroots” Man it was perfect!
The audience was ready. Bam! They launched into an
instantly recognizable hit. In between songs lead singer
Rob Grill showed a gift for standup comedy with a series
of 60s jokes, spins on masculinity – (occasionally all
men feel compelled to utter the assertive epithet “Arrghhh,”
).
Rob
Grill, Grassroots, 1968
Rob Grill lead singer of The Grassroots Today.
With the group since the late 1960s, he's still rockin
at the top of his game/The Roots played hits I had not
heard in years: "Where Were You When I Needed You?" and
"Temptation Eyes. " They brought back those romantic
heartbreaks that are with us always. Why were the Roots
songs hits? They sang to your experience and soothed
wounds saying it was OK to feel that way.
