Area Concertgoers

Enjoyed A Bounty Of Recent Reunion Tours

By John Voket

From the progressive British rock of Asia to those good ‘ol boys from Texas, ZZ Top, rock and roll concert fans have enjoyed an extended run of reunions this year, which rivaled some of the busiest summer touring seasons going back to the late 1970s. And while many of the acts passing through the region regularly reactivate for the summer reunion circuit, encompassing venues like casinos, state fairs and fair weather sheds, concertgoers in recent months had bountiful opportunities to see musical history being recycled and revived like never before.

The Newtown Bee was fortunate enough to be front and center for many of these reunion shows, and even in the case of Bruce Springsteen’s Hartford tour opened earlier this month, where we were relegated to the farthest seat in the farthest section of the arena, we were able to bear witness to some real musical magic.

Of course, even a full tank of gas and a voracious appetite for great live rock and roll was not enough to get us into or out to all the great reunions. We regretted missing the Stray Cats who played a hometown show at Jones Beach on Long Island, and were a little put out when reps from the Genesis tour suggested we buy our own ticket if we wanted to see that Hartford stop (we declined).

Below are a random sampling of some of the best reunion shows The Bee was able to catch so far this year:

Experience Hendrix — Palace Theater, Waterbury

This wonderful and extremely exclusive celebration of the late, great Jimmy Hendrix reunited the rhythm section of Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell supporting a cast of guitar heroes taking their turn on a cache of great Hendrix tunes and blues classics he helped immortalize. The three-hour-plus extravaganza not only harkened back to some of the great concert marathons the Palace hosted in the 60s and 70s, but connected hard core Hendrix fans as closely as possible to the man who managed to produce incredible music, even when his guitar was on fire — literally!

With a lineup including Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon aka Stevie Ray Vaughn’s Double Trouble, Eric Gales, Doyle Bramhall II, Kenny Olson, Buddy Guy, Robert Randolph, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Robby Krieger of the Doors, Mick Taylor formerly of the Rolling Stones, and Hubert Sumlin who mixed it up with Howlin’ Wolf, even passing fans of Hendrix had to come away from this performance impressed.

And since the tour only played seven shows, this performance was a coup for local fans as well as the recently renovated venue in neighboring Waterbury, and the sold-out crowd should certainly bode well for the Palace in its bid for other more exclusive shows like Experience Hendrix. Kudos to Premier Entertainment of Waterbury for hooking yet another winner and reeling it in!

Van Halen — Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville

Count me among the millions of fans worldwide who thought they would never see David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen performing classics from their five-year collaboration on the same stage. And whether it was love and/or money that got this act back together (albeit, without bassist Michael Anthony who was replaced by Eddie’s son, the more than capable Wolfgang Van Halen) by the time the band rolled into Mohegan Sun, they were primed and ready to prove themselves to any skeptics in the house.

The result was a 26-song extravaganza that topped even my highest expectations. In fact, among the hundreds and hundreds of live shows I’ve witnessed since the early 70s, this one has rocketed into my top ten, easily. The Van Halen reunion offered more than just the songs of a generation dished up with all the whooping, campy, and shameless preening David Lee Roth could muster — it showcased a foursome of musicians who seemed destined to play their best live music in this configuration.

If anyone out there missed this show, you are in luck because the Van Halen reunion will bounce back into the region between October 30 and November 13, playing shows in Boston, New York, and New Jersey. If you are a fan of the original Van Halen, and thought a reunion of this act was too good to be true, take it from me, this show is too good to miss!

The Police / Smashing Pumpkins — Live Earth / The Virgin Festival

We got two chances to see these two enjoyable reunions — first in separate four-song teaser sets at Al Gore’s Live Earth showcase at Giants Stadium, and then in their full-blown glory headlining separate nights at Baltimore’s Virgin Festival a few weeks later.

The Police — Sting, Andy Summer, and Stuart Copeland — stayed loyal enough to many of their best known hits to make the stylistic variations of some of their lesser-known tunes very exciting to see on stage. The guys looked great and sounded even better, especially in Baltimore where Sting finally shed a nagging summer cold that strained his vocals during the short Live Earth set.

And while the buzz-saw frenzy of Smashing Pumpkins is always stimulating, it was also interesting to see how a nearly complete transfusion of new blood helped founder and front-man Billy Corgan take his band higher and harder backed by the capable talents of Jimmy Chamberlin, Jeff Schroeder, Ginger Reyes, and Lisa Harriton in place of former members James Iha, D’arcy Wretzky, and Melissa Auf der Maur.

Rush — Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville

The Bee’s previous review of this show said it all about the welcome and long-overdue return of this Canadian power trio supporting their latest offering, Snakes & Arrows. The performance turned in by Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Pert was not only technically flawless and acoustically superior to anything this reviewer has seen going back to the band’s early days, but among the best sounding concerts ever.

Rush ran the gamut, including classics and a smattering of more obscure fan favorites with a generous serving of new material that was mixed well enough to keep the show pumping from the first note to the last cymbal crash.

Bruce Springsteen — Hartford Civic Center, Hartford

Hey, what can I say. We’re talking The Boss here, accompanied as he is meant to be, with the entire entourage of his E-Street Band. While fans are always hopeful for another pass at this configuration, the second half of Bruce Springsteen’s career has seen him playing less, not more, with his original comrades. But this fall, and hopefully the new year, brings eternal hope that we will see more of this consummate reunion on local stages.

I was somewhat disappointed after Springsteen’s world tour opener supporting his latest, Magic, because he squandered so much of the two-hour-plus set playing almost the entire new album. This left precious little time for classics and deeply buried gems from his sumptuous catalog.

But we did get a few tasty nuggets in Hartford, including “The Ties That Bind,” “She’s the One,” and a rousing “Darlington County.” While this show was not among the best I’ve seen from Bruce in the past, it was still testimony to what he and his E-Street Band are capable of. And it bodes well for a boomerang tour next year that will hopefully see The Boss revisiting his treasure chest of classics to give just a little bit more to the fans who have been enthusiastically supporting him through each of Springsteen’s many incarnations.