(editor’s note – this show was originally scheduled for August 19)

Cars drive off summer with disappointment

by Steve Webb, The Knickerbocker News, September 5, 1980

An 14-hour set by the New Wave-oriented rock band the Cars closed the Saratoga Performing Arts Center’s 15th Season Thursday night, drawing 20,415 fans despite the fact that school had already started up again.

Early in the evening, the SPAC staff knew the crowd total would mean that attendance in the Special Events category — including rock shows and other one-night performances — showed an increase from last year, despite fewer events. A big Labor Day weekend, with more than 57,000 attending three rock shows by Charlie Daniels, Jackson Browne and the Cars, made this possible.

So did several artists who drew 10,000 or more at their concerts, such as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Heart, the Blues Brothers, John Denver, the Allman Brothers Band, The Doobie Brothers, Journey and Genesis. Official totals on the season won’t be prepared until next week.

As a closing concert, the Cars did not deliver the quantity or quality Daniels or Browne did at their shows. This Boston group has been unfortunate, actually, that its popularity has reached superstar status so quickly and perhaps for reasons it could not control.

The band on stage doesn’t match the nature of its appeal on the debut album, “Cars.” With a collection of odd rhythms, that first album was still a killer rock ‘n’ roll set by what appeared to be a guitar group.

Their intentions appear to be different, or at least a cross between that and a dronish art band whose songs build from riffs and keyboards-drums textures. “Candy-O” would certainly fit this description, as does the new album, “Panorama.”

The crowd frequently got on to its feet at the start of songs, which were almost always from the debut album. And the crowd was almost always sitting by the end of the song.

The band shows development, but in areas not entirely related to rock ‘n’ roll. Sensitive to complaints that its stage show was unimaginative, the band has incorporated a beautiful, musically suggestive set with a variety of interesting lighting techniques. The colors are perfect, and visually it was the best rock show of the season.

Musically, the band frequently sounds repetitive, and without the inner tension that makes Talking Heads’ same tendency an asset. Its heavily stylized vocals — both by guitarist Ric Ocasek and bassist — sound as though they are impersonating the same person.

The highlights, including the title cut “Panorama” and “Don’t Tell Me No” from the latest album and several chestnuts such as “Good Times” and “My Best Friend’s Girl,” showed this band to be a comer, one that has survived the initial excitement as Boston didn’t, and Blondie hasn’t, and Fleetwood Mac chose not to.

Under other circumstances, it would be a very good concert. Closing a fine summer rock season, and in the face of 20,000 fans, it was a slight disappointment.

The Motels, opening for the Cars, are the last in a string of fine opening sets the SPAC season has featured.

Led by vocalist Martha Davis and including four other crack instrumentalists, the Motels have ideas with the same Roxy Music basis as much of the Cars’ material. The music is more basic, perhaps less developed, but also more exciting. The highlight was the band’s latest single, “Danger,” which comes across like a funkier version of “Shattered,” accented by interesting synthesizer voices and a cool saxophone solo.

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