Good Lovin'

Yup, another oldies concert night. A few years ago, we saw a group calling themselves "The Rascals." But without Felix Cavaliere, even with original members of the group, the songs just didn't sound right. Tonight, we saw Felix Cavaliere, himself, with a group called "The Rascals," and the place rocked. Of course, the group was once The Young Rascals. And tonight's group didn't include any of the originals. This is clearly Felix' group. He can still sing and no one has ever sung Rascals' songs the way he does. The group did some non-Rascals songs, too, but I wish they'd done "How Can I Be Sure." I suspect it's because Felix didn't write it and there was bad blood when the group broke up. Still, the show was enjoyable and Felix is still amazing on keyboards/organ.

Following Felix was Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge, featuring Johnny and 3 other original Bridge members, two of whom were with the Del Satins. They all sounded better than when we saw them last time, but I still had trouble with understanding Johnny even when I knew the lyrics, which is pretty much all of the songs. His enunciation these days could be better. They did a few numbers from Johnny's first group, the Crests (including "16 Candles" and my favorite from that group, "Step by Step"), and some songs by others. I wasn't impressed with their versions of a couple of Dion songs — no one should do Dion but Dion — but Johnny did a wonderful job with "Unchained Melody" (a classic from the Righteous Brothers).

To add a note of absurd irony to the night, we had front row seats that were — yup, seats we had previously, one of which was the gum seat. I didn't see that when I sat down as the theater was dimly lit, but I sure felt wet once I sat. Yes, the seat was wet, and I think it was just water. Maybe someone had been trying to clean the gum off. It was still a bit tacky but all I got was wet. No gum on me this time. I got lots of napkins from the food area and sat on that. I complained and the woman said she'd have someone look at the seat. They probably need to replace the cushion.

Feeling: