Stage Pass Now…Jonah Koslen, one of Cleveland’s native sons and an original member of MSB has started a new tour playing Stage Pass live in concert. When I first heard about it, the first question I asked was why now. Why after 33 years do you re-visit at least in Cleveland lore, such an iconic album especially without the namesake of the band? Would the fans respond?
As my wife (Mrs. Bear) and I were driving to the show, I was thinking out loud “I wonder if anyone is going to show up”. My fears were that there are none more loyal (rabid!) fans than Michael Stanley fans. After almost 40 years of playing around the Cleveland area, Michael still sells out shows everywhere he plays. With this type of fan, would they accept this album being played without him, even by the much loved Jonah Koslen? I went to the House Of Blues show 2 years ago when Michael and the Resonators were playing and the nights biggest ovation came when Jonah came out and played “Waste A Little Time On Me” and “Nothings Gonna Change My Mind” because that’s how we remember MSB, Michael and Jonah playing together.
All my questions were answered when I walked into the Winchester Tavern and Music Hall on Saturday night. The place was packed! Many in the crowd I have seen at various Michael Stanley shows. Peanuts was there. Matt from Addicted to Vinyl was there, and many, many Jonah Koslen fans were there. According to the management of The Winchester it was a sold out show.
This was my first time at The Winchester, but not my last. Jonah picked a great place to launch his new tour. The acoustics are great, the staff is outstanding and it is one of the premier places in Cleveland to see a concert. Looking at the pictures of who was played there on the walls, Leon Russell, Sophie B. Hawkins, Nils Lofgren, Wishbone Ash, Savoy Brown, Jessie Collin Young, Al Stewart, the list goes on and on. Being there brings back a lot of memories of the old Agora for me.
For this tour Jonah pulled together veterans of the Cleveland music scene. Donny Thompson (guitar and vocals) from Easy Street and Goodfoot, Bill March (bass and vocals) from Beau Coup, Rik Williger (keyboards) from Jonah Koslen and The Gentlemen Rockers, and Van Eidom (drums) from Taxi and Easy Street.
At 9:00pm the lights dimmed and the band walked out to the stage and then a roar went up as Jonah came out and strapped on his guitar. I’ve listened to the album so many times in the 33 years since it came out I was waiting for the announcer to say “A warm welcome please for Epic Recording artists….” as the band launched into those familiar opening licks of “Midwest Midnight”. As soon as those opening notes were played I knew all those fears I had were for naught. I looked around the hall and it seemed everyone in the place were moving to the music and singing lyric for lyric with Jonah. After the song Jonah said “welcome to 1976, I feel 25 again” and the crowd did too.
As Jonah and the band went track for track thru Stage Pass you could tell by the reaction of the audience, they were getting more and more into it as well as Jonah. In the beginning he looked a little tight but as the night rolled on Jonah seemed to relax and feel the reaction of the audience. Jonah’s interaction with the audience became infectious. He would ask “do you know the next song?”
and the crowd always did. One of the aspects I especially enjoyed was Jonah telling stories about each song. I like to hear the background of how music is made and his telling of the stories opened up the album to me in a different way that just playing it at home you’ll never get.
As they approached, I’ll call it “track 4 on the album” Jonah made the statement “this should be the last song of the night but I have to play them in order. We knew we had it right when we recorded this” and with the opening notes of "Nothings Gonna Change My Mind" the crowd came to its feet. There were times that Jonah even was drowned out by the audience singing what had to be their favorite song of the night.
As they went thru the album, some of the songs could have been landmines for the band especially on “Pierette” as trying to come close to Danny Pecchio’s voice on the song could have been a disaster but Donny Thompson pulled it off beautifully. A friend of mine, Joe Martin turned after the song and said “that took guts” and he was right. Also on what is my favorite “Michael song” “Movin Right Along” on the original "MS" album is a beautiful song in its own right and on the Stage Pass album the song became really a jam at the end which I never really cared for but tonight I was impressed as they reproduced the jam note for note.
They also interlaced some songs into the middle of the show like “Blue Jean Boy”, “Gypsy Eyes” and as Jonah said “an obvious omission off Stage Pass”, “Ladies Choice”. It left me wondering if these were songs originally left off the album and also what others were left off.
It was fun as Jonah talked and even used some of the same lines off the album especially as he introduced “Rosewood Bitters” as “first song on the first side of the first Michael Stanley album” and the crowd also relayed it word for word.
The show ended with the crowd pleasing “Strike Up The Band” and as every time I have ever heard it played live it turned into a audience participation song as “strike it up, strike it up” became the anthem of the night.
With a heartfelt “I love you guys” Jonah and the band left the stage with a smile on his face and he also left a smile on our faces too.
At 9:00pm the lights dimmed and the band walked out to the stage and then a roar went up as Jonah came out and strapped on his guitar. I’ve listened to the album so many times in the 33 years since it came out I was waiting for the announcer to say “A warm welcome please for Epic Recording artists….” as the band launched into those familiar opening licks of “Midwest Midnight”. As soon as those opening notes were played I knew all those fears I had were for naught. I looked around the hall and it seemed everyone in the place were moving to the music and singing lyric for lyric with Jonah. After the song Jonah said “welcome to 1976, I feel 25 again” and the crowd did too.
As Jonah and the band went track for track thru Stage Pass you could tell by the reaction of the audience, they were getting more and more into it as well as Jonah. In the beginning he looked a little tight but as the night rolled on Jonah seemed to relax and feel the reaction of the audience. Jonah’s interaction with the audience became infectious. He would ask “do you know the next song?”
and the crowd always did. One of the aspects I especially enjoyed was Jonah telling stories about each song. I like to hear the background of how music is made and his telling of the stories opened up the album to me in a different way that just playing it at home you’ll never get. As they approached, I’ll call it “track 4 on the album” Jonah made the statement “this should be the last song of the night but I have to play them in order. We knew we had it right when we recorded this” and with the opening notes of "Nothings Gonna Change My Mind" the crowd came to its feet. There were times that Jonah even was drowned out by the audience singing what had to be their favorite song of the night.
As they went thru the album, some of the songs could have been landmines for the band especially on “Pierette” as trying to come close to Danny Pecchio’s voice on the song could have been a disaster but Donny Thompson pulled it off beautifully. A friend of mine, Joe Martin turned after the song and said “that took guts” and he was right. Also on what is my favorite “Michael song” “Movin Right Along” on the original "MS" album is a beautiful song in its own right and on the Stage Pass album the song became really a jam at the end which I never really cared for but tonight I was impressed as they reproduced the jam note for note.
They also interlaced some songs into the middle of the show like “Blue Jean Boy”, “Gypsy Eyes” and as Jonah said “an obvious omission off Stage Pass”, “Ladies Choice”. It left me wondering if these were songs originally left off the album and also what others were left off.
It was fun as Jonah talked and even used some of the same lines off the album especially as he introduced “Rosewood Bitters” as “first song on the first side of the first Michael Stanley album” and the crowd also relayed it word for word.
The show ended with the crowd pleasing “Strike Up The Band” and as every time I have ever heard it played live it turned into a audience participation song as “strike it up, strike it up” became the anthem of the night.
After the song Jonah told the audience “You Kicked Ass” and the band left the stage, but you knew it wasn’t over. Another highlight of the night was when they came out and cranked it up with Jonah’s hits from his days in Breathless with “Take It Back” and Walk Right In”. As he said earlier, “this should be the last song of the night”, he made it true as he played “Nothings Gonna Change My Mind” again and the crowd acted like it was the only time played that night. They loved it.
With a heartfelt “I love you guys” Jonah and the band left the stage with a smile on his face and he also left a smile on our faces too.
1 comments:
Looks like a blast.
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