On a whim, I decided to go with my number two daughter (I have 4 in all and a son) to a local county fair kind of thing in a park nearby. I don’t usually go to this type of thing, but what drew me in was that it was a Music Festival too! So anything with the word music in it usually gets my attention! Actually, there is another thing that will get my attention as well, it’s the word FREE! Now, you put the two together and BAM, I’m sold!
I’d heard some advertisements on the radio and saw a few on facebook, but hadn’t given it much thought until I realized it was really close by, the word free was attached and I found out that Nils Lofgren and Robert Randolph were going to play. So now I was interested and when my daughter brought up the subject, it began to sound good! Of course, she had no interest in seeing Nils Lofgren, but she had at least heard of Robert Randolph, no, it was The Bravery and OK GO that she had in mind and just needed some company.
The MusicFest started mid week and featured some other big names, like Suzanne Vega, Soul Asylum, Train, Spoon, along with tons of local bands. There were four stages, three that were showcasing music and one for children’s acts. But the act that caught my eye was The Zombies, who were to play after Nils Lofgren and Suzanne Vega and before Robert Randolph on the last day. So we made a deal, she’d go with me to see Nils and the Zombies if we went to see The Bravery and Ok Go the day before, so we did and both acts were pretty amazing! Ok Go was my favorite, they are just so crazy! They did a song using just hand bells! (Unfortunately, there were no treadmills!)
The MusicFest started mid week and featured some other big names, like Suzanne Vega, Soul Asylum, Train, Spoon, along with tons of local bands. There were four stages, three that were showcasing music and one for children’s acts. But the act that caught my eye was The Zombies, who were to play after Nils Lofgren and Suzanne Vega and before Robert Randolph on the last day. So we made a deal, she’d go with me to see Nils and the Zombies if we went to see The Bravery and Ok Go the day before, so we did and both acts were pretty amazing! Ok Go was my favorite, they are just so crazy! They did a song using just hand bells! (Unfortunately, there were no treadmills!)
Nils Lofgren was fairly well known when I was a teen; he formed the band Grin, which later included his brother Tom, giving us “White Lies” and “Moon Tears”, he then went solo for many years, giving us “Cry Tough”, “No Mercy”, “I Came to Dance” and last but not least, “Keith Don’t Go”, before ending up in the E Street Band with Bruce Springsteen. He also played with Neil Young and Crazy Horse as a teen.
The Zombies were very big when I was in junior high, who could forget “Tell Her No”, “She’s Not There” and “Time of the Season”, there was just something magical about the blending of voices between Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone! Way back in the early “60s” and into the “70s”, The Zombies were a staple on the radio, when they split up, Rod went on to form the group Argent giving us such hits as “Hold Your Head Up” and what would later become a rock anthem covered by the band Kiss, “God Gave Rock and Roll to You”.
The Zombies were very big when I was in junior high, who could forget “Tell Her No”, “She’s Not There” and “Time of the Season”, there was just something magical about the blending of voices between Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone! Way back in the early “60s” and into the “70s”, The Zombies were a staple on the radio, when they split up, Rod went on to form the group Argent giving us such hits as “Hold Your Head Up” and what would later become a rock anthem covered by the band Kiss, “God Gave Rock and Roll to You”.
I’ve seen Nils Lofgren a couple of times over the years, once as a solo act and once as back up for Bruce Springsteen in the E Street band, so I was kind of looking forward to seeing what he’d look and sound like after all these years. He was scheduled to play as an acoustic duo on the last day of the MusicFest which was a Sunday. Unfortunately it began raining in the morning, even though he wasn’t supposed to perform until 1 in the afternoon, I was starting to get cold feet. I don’t relish the idea of hanging around in the rain and mud very much, but the rain seemed to be letting up and even though I’d missed Lofgren, I thought it might be fun to try to catch The Zombies, so we took a chance.
Somehow by the time we arrived, paid the parking fee of ten dollars, (it’s never really free), parked the car, the rain had stopped and the sun was peeking out from under the clouds. We only had about 20 minutes or so to kill before the Zombies were scheduled to go on, so we checked out the local band that was playing, we then found our spot near the stage for the Zombies. I’d never seen them live and had no idea what to expect, but they hit the stage and the crowd was growing by the minute! At 65, they had changed a lot and Colin looked a bit frail, but the second they sang, it was like being transported back in time! Both Argent and Blunstone’s voices were still in awesome condition! After the first song, the audience was trans fixed, looking around, I noticed a stark contrast between the old and young, all were enthralled by what they saw and heard, the old reminiscing and the young picking up on something new to them!
I can’t really remember every song they did, I hadn’t heard them all before, but what I remember went something like this “Care of Cell 44”, “A Rose for Emily”, “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted”, “Tell Her No”, “Time of the Season” a new song I think called “Believe”, “Hold Your Head Up”, “God Gave Rock & Roll to You” and I pretty sure they finished with “She’s Not There”. They also played songs like “Liar”, which was written by Argent and Blunstone, but became a big hit for Three Dog Night. Performing along with Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone was a backup band consisting of Jim Rodford (Rod’s cousin) on bass, his son Steve Rodford on drums and new comer guitarist Tom Toomey. Jim Rodford had played with the Kinks for years until they finally disband. Rod did most of the talking, explaining the chronological origins of each song in the set. They played for over an hour and the crowd was singing along and going wild after each song!
I gained some new respect for The Zombies, Rod along with Colin, held their own, proving as the band Jethro Tull once stated in their lyrics “you’re never too old to rock and roll, if you’re too young to die” and a new generation of Zombie lovers has been added to their throng!
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