Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

Last night I went to the Orange County Fair to see a Psychedelic
Extravaganza:
Vanilla Fudge, Quicksilver, Starship, and Steppenwolf. First, I will skip
any mention of the middle two groups as their performances were, well, how
can we be kind???

Believe it or not, Vanilla Fudge opened! Now, I did not expect them to
headline (Steppenwolf), but the original band's musicianship blew the San
Francisco Acid Crowd off the stage! Yes, it was the original band: Mark
Stein, Vince Martel, Carmine Appice and Tim Bogert. Mark was playing a Bill
Beers chop into a single Leslie 145. He also had a keyboard set up next to
the organ for one song which he played piano.

They came out and started their set with She's Not There. Tim Bogert sang
lead and the band sounded just like the record. The sound man had too much
horn on the Leslie and not enough rotor. But Mark sounded great. And so did
Carmine! Anyway, they followed with a new song from their "upcoming CD". It
was a cover of U2's One. After that they went into People Get Ready with
Carmine singing lead. The backup four part harmonies sounded amazing. Not
bad for 50+ men. They followed with a kick ass version of Shotgun, and ended
with Keep Me Hanging On.

That's right. only 30 minutes. I was pissed, but sort of expected it. My
band usually gets 30 min at the House of Blues when we support an act. I
guess I was more disappointed that they did not perform Take Me For a Little
While.

After suffering through the next two acts, we finally saw Steppenwolf.
Another good performance. John Kay (sans sunglasses) sounded great and even
the new stuff was good. My favorite moment in the show was when they
performed Monster. Still very relevant to our time.

The keyboard player was using an XB2 into two Leslie 147's. That's right, an
XB2! Sounded like shit when he switched to tremolo with all that harmonic
beating. (Although it kind of worked when they played Magic Carpet Ride.
Sort of like on an acid trip. Or a phase shifter. Cool Dude!!!!)

I can't figure it out. This is a band that still headlines and they can't
upgrade him to an XK3 or a real B3???? He must have a Speakeasy because when
he was playing it on Chorale the organ had a wonderfully distorted
"Steppenwolf sound". He was very good, although NOT Goldie McJohn. One thing
that was impressive is that he also played very good bass on the lower part
of the keyboard. Guess they want more $$$ as a four piece.

All in all a good concert. Just wish that Fudge played longer.

By the way. Mark Stein still does the left hand wipes and gestures to the
audience. Watching him perform Keep Me Hangin On was a trip as I saw him do
the same gestures this morning on that Ed Sullivan video on YouTube.