This past Saturday evening, Nick and I met my friend Don down at the canal and enjoyed an evening of tunes courtesy of the latest edition of Badfinger. As some of you may know, the group was a hit-making machine in the first half of the seventies, but fell on some tough financial times (much of it related to the fact they recorded for Apple records, which had a slew of their own problems) which pretty directly led to the suicides of two of the group's key members, Pete Ham and Tom Evans. It was a sad seeming end to a fine band, until they were reorganized for the oldies circuit by the third songwriter in the original group Joey Molland. It's a little bittersweet (if you know the details of their story) to see the group now, but I have to say they overcame any reservations I might have had by putting on an excellent show.
All those on the stage seemed to be having a great time, especially Molland, and instead of just rifling through the hits with some covers thrown in (a common enough agenda for these kinds of acts), they played a number of old album tracks and other material that sounded nearly as good if not so familiar as the standards like "Come and Get It,", "Day After Day," "Baby Blue," and "No Matter What." Molland also told some funny stories of the group's early days (several of which involved encounters with individual Beatles with whom they worked). He also gave ample credit to the late Ham and Evans in introducing their compositions.
You hear a lot of people say that once a band falls off the hit parade they should just hang it up and get a real job. But I say, if you can make a living doing what you love (as these guys clearly loved playing rock and roll for an appreciative crowd), then more power to you. In away, it's just a return to the roots of live music-- wandering troubadors just happy to find a place to play. I mean, that works just fine for me.
This past Saturday evening, Nick and I met my friend Don down at the canal and enjoyed an evening of tunes courtesy of the latest edition of Badfinger. As some of you may know, the group was a hit-making machine in the first half of the seventies, but fell on some tough financial times (much of it related to the fact they recorded for Apple records, which had a slew of their own problems) which pretty directly led to the suicides of two of the group's key members, Pete Ham and Tom Evans. It was a sad seeming end to a fine band, until they were reorganized for the oldies circuit by the third songwriter in the original group Joey Molland. It's a little bittersweet (if you know the details of their story) to see the group now, but I have to say they overcame any reservations I might have had by putting on an excellent show. 
All those on the stage seemed to be having a great time, especially Molland, and instead of just rifling through the hits with some covers thrown in (a common enough agenda for these kinds of acts), they played a number of old album tracks and other material that sounded nearly as good if not so familiar as the standards like "Come and Get It,", "Day After Day," "Baby Blue," and "No Matter What." Molland also told some funny stories of the group's early days (several of which involved encounters with individual Beatles with whom they worked). He also gave ample credit to the late Ham and Evans in introducing their compositions. 
You hear a lot of people say that once a band falls off the hit parade they should just hang it up and get a real job. But I say, if you can make a living doing what you love (as these guys clearly loved playing rock and roll for an appreciative crowd), then more power to you. In away, it's just a return to the roots of live music-- wandering troubadors just happy to find a place to play. I mean, that works just fine for me.
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