Rock Groups Draw 16,000 At SPAC

by Marilyn Nason, The Post-Star, August 26, 1970

More than 16,000 turned out last night for what has to be labeled one of the noisiest nights ever in the five years of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center with the coupling of Three Dog Night and the James Gang.

The latter group, and let the comments fall where they may, is not worth reviewing. They are strictly a backup group, dime a dozen variety, and filled the first half of the show for about an hour.

As the Three Dog Night group appeared, some seven young men in all, they immediately proved a higher calibre group. They are quite interesting to watch and polished performers. They have a flair for “little bits” amongst themselves, such as silently stalking an unsuspecting drummer, and this is extremely clever theatre. They did a particularly good spoof on the rock group of the fifties, and, with a bit of toning down, should very easily be a group that survives in coming seasons, something to consider with the high mortality rate common among these groups.

Unbelievable

It took an unbelievable 45-minute intermission to rearrange all the microphones and electronic maze of wires these groups use but then they continuously kept tuning up, an annoying habit for the audience to watch. This seems so strange since the world’s finest virtuosi of all instruments can manage to tune once on the SPAC stage in all types of weather conditions and then perform the most difficult of works faultlessly.

Throughout both halves of the show, which never ended until midnight, members of the two groups continuously scurried around on stage repairing things. Perhaps this was planned; if so, it was clever.

As with all of these rock groups at SPAC, the sound is so highly amplified within the theatre that it becomes almost intolerable and this is where the lawn crowd has it made. As for the lawn crowd, last night the same “grass” smell was again very much evident and apparently will never be controlled at SPAC.

Thanks to the courage of Craig Hankenson, SPAC’s general manager, four years ago these specials were first added midst considerable negative opinion especially when he brought groups of questionable talent like The Doors. But Mr. Hankenson was right then and is even more so today, as box office returns from these specials add considerably to the fiscal structure of SPAC.

For All Types

This center is meant to be a forum for all types of professional entertainment and the more than 16,000 who paid their money last night proved that this type is their favored entertainment and it has its place at SPAC, although there still remains many critics of this level of entertainment.

Three Dog Night should rightfully be invited back again. They offered a good clean show, flair, polish and considerable talent.

As happens with each of these rock specials, last night the audience began surging toward and onto the stage at the close of the performance and enforcement people had their hands full for a time for a second night in a row.

Too many of the young people have caught on to the idea of heading towards the stage door before the show ends, hoping to catch a glimpse of their favorite stars. Last night at least 2,000 milled for some time near the stage entrance.

SPAC is dark tonight, resuming the specials tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. with Blood, Sweat and Tears.