SPAC Crowd Reaction: Bands, Yes; Singer, No

by Bill Rice, The Troy Record, June 20, 1972

Three different acts, Tom Rush and his band, singer Pamela Polland, and the Kenny Loggins Band with Jim Messina, performed in what almost turned out to be a marathon concert at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center Sunday evening.

The concert, which didn’t end until near midnight, was two-thirds successful. The two bands came out on top while Miss Polland, whose biggest claim to fame is having toured with Joe Cocker, was thrown to the wolves by being sandwiched in between.

Actually, Miss Polland didn’t sing badly but she made a few mistakes like singing her first song sans accompaniment. It was a disaster, especially when she tried to get the audience to sing with her. Somebody should have warned her, SPAC audiences don’t usully sing along with much enthusiasm.

She made a rally of sorts when she finally sat down at the piano to provide her own accompaniment.

Tom Rush, who had top billIng, didn’t start to sing until neariy 11 p.m. and by then some of the audience was leaving. It was amazing the way he took control of the audience.

During the first leg of the concert the audience was wild with enthusiastic hand clapping, foot stomping, applause for the highly charged Loggins-Messina group. During Miss Polland’s songfest they became restless, noisy and often rude.

But for the duration of Rush’s segment you could hear a pin drop. It was hard to believe it was the same audience in all three cases.

Rush is a folk singer from up New Hampshire way and about half of his music was in this vein. The rest was a breezy sort of light rock with a twist of country flavoring. An old Bo Diddley tune was thrown in for good measure.

Of the two groups, we preferred the opening Loggins-Messina ensemble, which included Loggins on guitar, Larry Sims on bass and Marel Bregante on drums. Playing an armful of instruments including violin, oboe, flute, three varieties of saxophones and several different-sized recorders were Al Garth and John Clarke.

The country-oriented group was too loud for comfortable listening, but musicianship was high with Al Garth almost turning the group’s hit single, Vahevala, into a violin concerto.