Doobies satisfy 18,033 in season’s biggest show
by Steve Webb, The Knickerbocker News, August 28, 1979
The Doobies can do it all; make no mistake about it. If the music has any hint of fun and good times in it, the San Francisco rock band will take a stab at it, and reproduce the smiles if not the lifecore.
The Doobie Brothers played a 1 1/2 hour show Tuesday at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Early afternoon rain regardless, it was the biggest drawing pop concert all summer at the center, with 18,033 fans crowding in the gates for an hour past the show’s starting time. This was several thousand more than in 1978 at the center.
Those fans got a better show than last year’s, which was greatly marred by poor sound. With small exception, the current band had perfect blend for its usual slick execution – often in medley form – of its six years’ worth of material.
Hit singles comprise the bulk of the Doobies show, and that bulk is certainly impressive. The band opens with the current hit, “Dependin’ on You,” follows with its cover of “Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me)” and add “Jesus is Just All Right,” “Long Train Coming,” “It Keeps You Running” and several others before the evening is out.
And despite numerous personnel changes over the years, each song retains much of its original impact. Sometimes this seven-piece band, including three new members, elaborates.
During the final encore, the band’s initial 1973 hit “Listen to the Music” turns into an effective jam with traded solos by saxophonist Cornelius Bumpus, guitarists Patrick Simmons and John McFee, and keyboardist Michael McDonald. Bumpus, who played organ during many of the songs, also added a Dixieland soprano sax part to the 1975 single, “Black Water.”
Simmons, bassist Tiran Porter and drummer Keith Knudsen tie the current group to its past. All three are either original or early members of the group. Simmons is an adequate lead guitarist, although his biggest asset is as a cheerleader. At one point he literally took a solo to the outer limits, running down the auditorium aisles past the range of his remote hookup.
The McDonald hits supply the current bread and butter, and he delivered with fine performances of “Minute by Minute,” “Taking It To the Streets” and this year’s big hit, “What a Fool Believes.”
He was shown up on keyboards, however, by a superlative veteran performer in opening act Night. Nicky Hopkins, who has done sessions ranging from the Beatles’ White Album to Jeff Beck’s “Beck-Ola” to some early Who singles, did a dynamite solo leading into the group’s song “Gotta Get Along Just Singing the Blues.” The crowd didn’t appear to recognize Hopkins’ name at first, but gave him a healthy round of applause when he was introduced at the set’s end.
Night, whose “Hot Summer Nights” is still climbing at Number 18 on the national singles chart, did a driving 45 minutes of sometimes bluesy rock. Lead vocalist Stevie Lange sings a lot like Roger Daltrey, drawing blood from her words. She and vocalist-guitarist Chris Thompson are a fine vocal combination, and he is impressive recreating the hit he sang with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, “Blinded by the Light.”
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