Concert Review
David Cassidy in Peekskill – What A Night!
I’ve noticed three types of people that attend a David Cassidy concert. Some of us of course, are combinations of these three.
Type A is the rabid fan that loves every moment of David on stage. Mr Cassidy could read the encyclopedia and they would be pleased. This person usually sits near the front and finds every opportunity to make eye contact with the object of their affection.
Type B remembers David from the early days of the 70s. This person usually comes in a group of like- minded individuals and sits somewhere in the middle or up in the balcony. He or she tends to cheer more loudly at the Partridge Family or solo hits and doesn’t care too much for new material.
Type C is the relative or friend (often male) that accompanies Type A or B (often female). Usually he tends to be pleasantly surprised by the variety of songs that David performs. Most often, this is the one that comes out feeling happy that he attended.
All three were in full force at the Paramount Theatre in Peekskill, NY ready to rock on this chilly October Friday evening. Depending on one’s idea of entertainment, David did not disappoint. The concert would be fun, controversial and more memorable than anyone expected.
“Hellooo Peekskill” exclaimed David in the midst of a pre-song guitar solo. “I’m thrilled to be back in my home state where I was born and spent my years growing in New York. I want you to come and enjoy yourselves and share in the love that I have for all of you tonight.”
Always articulate and always complimentary to fans and band members, David led us on a journey through his life starting with ‘C’mon Get Happy’ and on through influences like BB King (‘Sweet Little Angel’), John Lennon (‘In My Life’), Deep Purple (‘Hush’), Jack Cassidy (‘Night and Day’) as well as life changing moments (‘I Think I Love You’). There were tributes to Davy Jones (‘Daydream Believer’) and even to the stages of Times Square (‘On Broadway’).
He joked with us, told us stories behind the songs and introduced us to his band mates by giving each a chance to display their wonderful talents. Felipe Torres was especially interesting this evening with his blistering rendition of ‘Wipeout’ while flashing an evil grin at all of us as he pounded away.
David did give us his blessing to film and take photos as long as we kept the flashes and bright lights turned off. Fans complied and for a while, all was well.
Unique to the Paramount theatre was a set of alternating projection lights varying in colour from red to blue to green to white. In the midst of a superb ‘I’ll Meet You Halfway’, David became blinded by a bright light from the balcony which he thought was a coming from a fan’s video camera. He motioned to turn it off and when no response was received, he stopped singing. David requested that the audience member be ejected for being insensitive to his polite requests and for a few minutes confusion reigned until the light was turned off. It was later determined that the white projector theatre spotlight was responsible but sadly TMZ and other media outlets jumped on this situation and created a media frenzy that briefly overshadowed the upcoming USA Presidential election. Perhaps in the future David’s management could inform the theatres not to use the white spotlights at his shows. It might help prevent these unfortunate situations.
‘On Broadway’ was performed better than I had ever heard it before. David displayed some classic 1970s wiggles while Craig whipped up and down the keyboard. I thought his voice was sounding better this evening than it has all year and forty-five year old songs were performed as if they were fresh and current again.
The new Christmas ep was mentioned in passing though none of the songs from this release were performed.
During ‘Doesn’t Somebody Want to Be Wanted’, David changed the lyrics to “I gotta get out of this place, before I do I’ll take a rocket to space” which had us all laughing. With ‘I’ll Meet You Halfway’, he altered the melody during the chorus and ‘Sweet Little Angel’ boasted two consecutive guitar solos, first from David and then Dave Robicheau.
As he sang ‘Hush’, an usher surprised David by dancing from one end of the front row to the other. Talking about surprises, he extended the ending to ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ to keep the band in suspense. When he finally finished the song, they ended up a beat behind him. This time it was David’s turn to flash an evil grin.
He made a point of telling us that everything he does is live. No backing tracks, no set patter and “No Milli Vanelli”. Ninety minutes and 15 songs later, it was over. Fist bumps during ‘I Think I Love You’ provided the Type A and B fans with the close contact they sought while the rest of us cheered him on.
Memories and controversy. Who would have dreamed of this coming from Keith Partridge.
Was it a fun show? As David would say “Oh yeah baby!”
Venue: Paramount Theatre
Where: Peekskill, Upstate NY
When: October 28, 2016
