Summer 2010 Concert Wrap-Up—

Veteran Acts Still Had It Going On For Audiences Across Connecticut

By John Voket

One of the best things about the first few days of autumn is taking the opportunity to look back on all the great summer concerts presented to audiences here in Connecticut, in venues large and small.

Sure, the kids rocked to Green Day at the Comcast shed, and went, well... gaga over Lady Gaga a few blocks away at Hartford’s XL Center this summer, but it was concert tour veterans like Pat Benatar, Ian Hunter and Rush who helped reinforced the credo: you’re never too old to rock and roll!

That was evidenced by the fact that these and other established acts drew more diverse crowds of younger fans – say from age 18 on down – to their shows than ever before. Although at least a couple of shows headlined by younger artists — namely Jack Johnson and Grace Potter — were well worth checking out no matter what your age.

Concert fans had more places to see these acts, too, especially here in western Connecticut at venues like Danbury’s Palace Theater and the incredible Infinity Hall in Norfolk. Other gathering places, from the cavernous Mohegan Sun Arena to the intimate Ridgefield Playhouse, were similarly packed with fans drawn by the multitude of shows and caliber of talent on the road this past summer.

Some of the most memorable concerts here in Connecticut this summer (that The Bee has not yet reviewed) were:

Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo

at Mohegan Sun Arena, June 24

The opening night of this summer’s Pat Benatar-Neil Giraldo tour wasn’t without a few technical issues, but overall the husband and wife team who starred in the second video ever seen on MTV back on August 1, 1981 (“You Better Run”) were in fine form.

Benatar, who earlier that week saw her memoir, Between a Heart and a Rock Place, hit The New York Times Best Seller list, sported long curly red locks, a far cry from the chapped pixie look of her heyday. But the crowd was there to hear of she still could hit those high notes with the fire siren power that made her famous. And she obliged on hits including the aforementioned MTV staple as well as “Invincible,” “Heartbreaker” and “Promises In The Dark.”

One of the show’s highpoints was when the couple gave backing musicians drummer Myron Grombacher and bassist Mick Mahan a break, sitting center stage on barstools performing “We Belong.” And once the band returned, blowing the roof off the place with the help of Giraldo’s pumping power chords and screaming leads on “Shadows of the Night.”

I’ve said it before, but it’s a joy to see one of rock and roll’s longest sustaining couples doing what they were apparently destined for since that day, Benatar once told me during an interview, she saw Neil walk in to audition for her band more than 31 years ago.

“I took one look at him and said to my manager, ‘boy I hope he can play!’”

Over the ensuing three decades, their onstage rapport has only improved. And this opening show just a few days into the official summer concert season was a great way to get things off and running.

Jack Johnson at

Hartford’s Comcast Theater, July 9

I’ll admit it, having only heard a couple of his hits I thought surfer turned musician Jack Johnson fell somewhere between the infectious, driven funk of Dave Matthews and the sublime coolness of John Mayer. But after my 17-year-old son predicted this would be one of the best shows of the year, my interest was piqued. (And he was right!)

Now we will get to a few observations about his local performance, but from the onset, I was thrilled with a couple of things Johnson was doing long before I ever got settled in my seat up at the Comcast shed. First, I gained a great deal of respect for this easygoing artist when I learned that all proceeds from the tour would go through his All At Once Foundation to benefit more than 150 non-profit groups focusing on supporting sustainable local food systems and plastic free initiatives.

Then, as if I didn’t feel good enough about buying a ticket, I learned that... there were no tickets. Indeed, Johnson was among a select number of artists working with Live Nation venues trying to defeat ticket scalping by utilizing ticketless entry.

As promised, when I arrived at the site I simply flashed my credit card and received a printout that designated my seat location. You couldn’t use the voucher for reentry, and up until you were inside the venue, there were no paper tickets to hawk on the street.

So I was already feeling pretty good about things once the music started. At that point I could no longer just lump Johnson into any specific category. His material was too easy to be rock, but at the same time, too edgy to be folk.

And clocking in at over two hours, there was plenty of repertoire to sample this evening. Besides his most popular material like “Upside Down,” “Better Together” and “Banana Pancakes,” Johnson also delivered some great new material from his latest release To the Sea.

He also teased the audience with some Hendrix, weaving a snippet of “Foxy Lady” into the framework of “From the Clouds,” and paid tribute to Bob Marley with a few bars from “Mellow Mood” inserted into “Same Girl.”

Overall, a great, easy to listen to show. I would definitely check out Jack Johnson again when he returns to the area, hopefully sooner than later.

Renaissance at The Infinity Hall, July 14

I think it was the fall of 1977 when I was dragged to Waterbury’s Palace Theater by a couple of friends who said I had to see a progressive British group called Renaissance. Having no clue, I was unprepared for the group’s incredible talent and their ability to capture medieval, symphonic and operatic elements into surprisingly fresh and upbeat arrangements.

They also appealed to me much like another progressive group, Yes, because several of their songs stretched on for 10 to 20 minutes or more, showcasing various movements and elements anchored to thematic centers. I still remember walking out of the Palace that night swearing I would never miss another local appearance by Renaissance.

But due to my ever-shifting schedules, and the fact that Renaissance only toured the US very occasionally, the chance to see them again — and to celebrate their incredibly complex music — didn’t happen again until this summer.

Thanks to a posting on the Infinity Hall’s Facebook page, I learned one day before the show that the band was coming into Norfolk, one of only a handful of gigs they were playing across the country this year to promote a new EP entitled, The Mystic and the Muse.

Hoping the band was able to retain any semblance of its spectacle from earlier years, I couldn’t have been more thrilled as Renaissance dealt out song after song sounding as good, or better, than the original recordings of 35 to 40 years ago.

Co-founders Annie Haslam and Michael Dunford led their four piece backing ensemble through hits like “Carpet of the Sun,” “Ocean Gypsy” and “Black Flame.”

But the crowning achievement of this summer’s show was the combination of the title track from their latest project, and the nearly 20-minute encore of “Ashes Are Burning,” with Haslam unleashing her five-octave vocal range and bringing the lucky, sold-out crowd of 300 to its feet cheering as the band took its final bows.

Rush at Mohegan Sun Arena, July 19

 Sure the roughly two dozen song, two set show from Canadian power trio Rush had plenty of gravy for fans young and old – and more than most of this summer’s concerts, this was the one where the most diverse multigenerational audience was in attendance.

Besides culling from their latest studio project Snakes and Arrows, and showcasing a couple of new tunes from a promised upcoming project, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Pert also showcased a personal favorite, “Subdivisions,” along with the seldom played “Presto,” “Time Stands Still” and “Spirit of Radio.”

But real Rush fans came to this show at Mohegan to celebrate the band’s 1981 release, Moving Pictures, which was played front to back, in its entirety.

Having seen at least one show from every tour since A Farewell to Kings, I’ve never seen Lee work his bass so hard and well. He was all over the place, making the chores of handling bass, vocals, and keyboards — played sometimes concurrently with hands and feet — look easy.

Pert, truly one of the world’s greatest living drummers, was also in top form for this show.

Besides the two new numbers, the newest addition to this tour was a multi-part series of hilariously tongue-in-cheek videos shown on the backdrop, revealing the true secret behind the formation of Rush, which actually began as a polka band called Rash before they fell under the spell of a cranky time machine.

From a technical and musical standpoint, this was among the best shows of the year so far for a band that has flown under the mainstream radar for so long, they have come to revel in their underdog status among contemporaries like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen and The Rolling Stones.

Jackson Browne with David Lindley

at the Oakdale, August 27

Despite Jackson Browne being sick as a dog, to the point that he admitted to almost canceling the show, true fans weer nevertheless able to celebrate the pairing of Browne with multi-instrumentalist David Lindley. And while the pair only shared the stage alone for a few songs, they laid out a highly satisfying opening set which transitioned to Browne’s playing an abbreviated set with his full band later in the evening.

As a result of losing some of his upper range due to the cold he was nursing, Browne waved off a number of requests telling the nearly sold-out crowd that he simply was not up for trying to hit any sustained high notes that evening. This caused him to cut a few popular tunes from what was up to that night, a static set list of hits.

But nonetheless, the show was great thanks in great part to Lindley picking up some of the slack. He and Browne opened with a pair of covers — Warren Zevon’s “Seminole Bingo” and Springsteen’s “Brothers Under the Bridge” — before attempting “For Everyman,” and an emotionally charged “Looking East,” with Lindley strumming the Egyptian Oud for accompaniment.

After Browne bowed to give Lindley the spotlight, he thrilled fans of eclectic rock by cranking out Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road.”

Returning with his band, which also featured Lindley on key numbers, Browne made the best of his temporary handicap, telling the crowd, “...when my voice makes that ripping sound, it doesn’t hurt me as much as it hurts you!”

Despite the rip, he proceeded with favorites including “Shape of a Heart,” “Your Bright Baby Blues,” with Lindley accenting admirably on his lap steel guitar, and “The Pretender,” during which Browne sang the same verse twice — cracking himself up later by blaming the medication he was on!

Grace Potter and The Nocturnals at

The Ridgefield Playhouse, September 12

Having reviewed her before in these pages, this show with Grace Potter and the Nocturnals returning to The Ridgefield Playhouse is of particular note because of the distance she and her new line-up of backing musicians has come since debuting in early 2009.

In the short span of about a year and a half, the new formula has yielded a fantastic self-titled album, and has really gelled, transforming this former spacey jam band to a true contemporary rock contender.

Sure, there were a few old favorites like “Ah Mary,” “Treat Me Right” (performed as an acoustic trio with Scott Tournet and Benny Yurco), and “Nothing But The Water.” But the new material including the reinvented “Paris,” “Colors” and “Goodbye Kiss,” really propelled the band to new heights.

Musical dynamics that were employed, sometimes signaled by the flick of Potter’s hand or a bob of her head, helped enhance the musical flavors of the band’s work during the quieter moments, and when they put the pedal down, the dizzying kaleidoscope of sound was incredible.

This band has reached it point of maturity, and is ready to be a big time contender, if the music industry will just give Potter and the Nocturnals the room they need to run. I hope they get all and more than they’ve earned paying their dues in too small halls and smoky bars for way too long.

Ian Hunter and The Rant Band at

 Danbury’s Palace Theater, September 17

With the first day of autumn just around the corner, Ian Hunter heated up this late summer night with all the wit and intensity one might expect from an artist half his age. But anyone who was in on this show — a benefit for the family of a friend who had lost his protracted battle with cancer — probably had a very difficult time believing this front man was all of 72 years old.

Opening with the rocker “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” Hunter took the Palace audience through a thorough retrospect of his career including a nod to his “other” band Mott the Hoople, with a kicking version of “All the Way to Memphis,” and their biggest hit, a cover of David Bowie’s “All the Young Dudes.”

The latter featured backing vocals from local musician Rick Tedesco and Newtown’s own Doug Wahlberg, whose band opened the show.

Other notable numbers from Hunter included a lovely rendition of “I Wish I Was Your Mother,” a thundering tribute to Lou Reed with a cover of his “Sweet Jane,” and Hunter sitting alone on the keyboards delivering a spectacular cover of “A Time for Us,” from Westside Story.

Special kudos, as well, to Wahlberg and company for providing a great opening set which showcased his band’s adeptness for maximizing the dual lead guitar work between himself and Tedesco, along with an excellent formula of high harmonies.