Review by Shawn Perry
Photos by Maria Younghans
Now in its 30th year, the Happy Together Tour 2014 is a summer package showcase featuring major musical figures from the 1960s and early 70s. Over the years, the roster has included the Grass Roots, Mark Lindsay, the Buckinghams, Gary Puckett and Micky Dolenz. Flo & Eddie aka Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of the Turtles have been pretty much the mainstays. Joining the tour for 2014 is Chuck Negron (formerly of Three Dog Night), Mark Farner (formerly of Grand Funk Railroad), Gary Lewis (& The Playboys), and Mitch Ryder (& The Detroit Wheels). As if the bill wasn’t full enough, Herman’s Hermits Starring Peter Noone closed the show.
Happy Together got underway with a canned introduction from Shadow Stevens, something that would occur before each artist took the stage. The intros and house band led by guitarist Godfrey Townsend with John Montagna on bass, Steve Murphy on drums and Manny Focarazzo on keyboards, underscored a tight, structured show that gave each performer about 15 minutes to play his greatest hits. First up was Gary Lewis (billed as Gary Lewis & The Playboys), who swooped up his guitar and stepped to the mic to sing “Count Me In,” “Everybody Loves A Clown” (Lewis mentioned he wrote this one with Leon Russell), “Save Your Heart For Me,” “This Diamond Ring” (his biggest hit, which knocked the Beatles off the top spot on the charts) and ‘She’s Just My Style, “ which could have just as easily been a Beach Boys song. Lewis, whose famous father Jerry probably helped out a little, sounded a little whiny on the vocals, but that’s pretty much his style.
Mitch Ryder, who was next, can sing just fine, and he killed it. “My name is Mitch Ryder and I’m from Detroit,” he announced during a set that included “Shake A Tail Feather,” “C.C. Rider,” “Sock It To Me Baby,” and, of course, the crowd-pleasing, hip-shaking “Devil With The Blue Dress” and “Good Golly Miss Molly” medley. He was followed by another Michigan native — original guitarist, singer and songwriter for Grand Funk Railroad, Mark Farner. I interviewed Farner before the show, and he offered me some insight into the tour. Of all the musicians on the bill, he was the one I wanted to see the most, and he did not disappoint — except for the brevity of his set.
As he told me, “The Loco-Motion,” the Gerry Goffin-Carole King song that went to Number one for both Little Eva and Grand Funk, was the opener. While this one isn’t exactly what I was hoping to hear (“Are You Ready” or “Paranoid” would have been just dandy), I could certainly understand its inclusion. Farner’s voice was as a strong as ever as he played the guitar and danced like it was 1975. “Some Kind Of Wonderful,” written by John Ellison and a Top 10 hit for Grand Funk, was next and it worked well with Farner trading the verses with drummer Steve Murphy. Then, as expected, came the big finale — “I’m Your Captain/Closer To Home.” As Farner told me and as he told the audience, the song has become a rallying call for the troops overseas. “God bless their souls,” Farner as he fell into the song, singing it with true conviction, heart and soul. Yeah, it would have been nice to see the rest of Grand Funk up there with him, but he and the Happy Together band pulled it off.
The fourth performer was someone I had been wanting to see for some time: Chuck Negron, formerly of Three Dog Night. In 2013, Three Dog Night played on the same exact stage, only they were one dog short. Negron, who hasn’t been with the group since 1977, was conspicuously absent when it came songs he sang like “One” and “Joy To The World.” I had read his autobiography Three Dog Nightmare, so naturally I was curious to see if he could still sing. In addition to “One” and “Joy To The World” (on which he was joined by members of his family), he also sang “Shambala” and “Mama Told Me Not Come,” both originally sang by Cory Wells. Although he didn’t move much and the voice was a little gruffer than before, Negron wasn’t too bad. If he had done “The Show Must Go On,” that might have been interesting, but it’s probably out of his range.
The last spot on the Happy Together portion of the evening belonged to Flo & Eddie (Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan) of the Turtles. They mixed it up with their brand of schmaltzy shtick and classic Turtles songs like “Some Girls,” “Elenore” and the Bob Dylan song “It Ain’t Me Babe,” a Top 10 hit in 1965. One of the highlights of their set for me was when the band played a snippet of Frank Zappa’s “Peaches en Regalia.” Even though Flo and Eddie, who had a history with Zappa, added a few hums that really didn’t need to be there, it was a nice tribute nonetheless. “Happy Together” was the capper, which brought out everyone on the bill for mini sets of their own. While it wasn’t exactly, as Shadow Stevens said, “the most fun I ever had,” it was good to hear a lot of the songs and see a good selection of younger and older people getting into it.
A short intermission and the stage was cleared for Herman’s Hermits Starring Peter Noone. Of course, the only original member of Herman’s Hermits left is Peter Noone, who’s definitely been dipping in the fountain of youth. At 66, the guy still has all his hair, and appeared fit and trim in his radiant suit. When he wasn’t working the front of the stage, telling stories and wisecracking (“I always dreamed of playing Costa Mesa”), he was jumping up and down with his much younger band members.
Between Noone’s impressions of Johnny Cash (“Ring Of Fire”), Mick Jagger (“Jumpin’ Jack Flash”) and Tom Jones (“It’s Not Unusual), there were the classic Herman’s Hermits songs — “I’m Into Something Good,” “(What A) Wonderful World,” “A Must To Avoid,” “Silhouettes,” “Dandy” (written by Ray Davies of the Kinks), “The End Of The World” (“Our feel-good song,” Noone joked) , “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter” and “Henry The VIII.” Yeah, they were all hits, just like every other song that was played over the course of two and half-hours. Once Noone got his selfie with the audience, it was time to hit the fair and think about the next show at the Pacific Ampthitheatre.
