Psychedelic Extravaganza!
2006-07-22 by David Jacques
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.