Oh What A (60s) Night

Welcome to this week's Friday Flashback. Each Friday in the Flashback we will offer a post about some part of the past and its relationship to DC. Sometimes, we will write a new entry. Others times, we will showcase articles that previously appeared in The Prices Do DC or some other online publications. But no matter who does the writing, you can trust that you will learn something important from the Flashback. 

For 8 performances a week for more than a 1,000 shows in total, Christian Hoff, Michael Langoria, Daniel Reichard, and J. Robert Spencer channeled The Four Seasons as the original cast members in the award-winning Broadway mega-hit Jersey Boys.

The quartet had so much fun with the musical that after they left the cast, they formed the group The Midtown Men to continue signing Four Seasons' tunes and other harmonious hits from the 1960s.

After a private performance in New York City, Steven Reinke, the enthusiastic pops conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra, told the quartet that they should perform with symphony orchestras.

Tonight, after 17 such concerts around the country, The Midtown Men, Reinke, and the NSO joined for the 1st of 2 nights of offerings of nostalgic 60s songs arranged especially for orchestra at the Kennedy Center.

Obviously, the clapping crowd loved the 8 Four Seasons songs performed, as well as a medley of classic Motown hits. But it was the more unique offerings such as "Happy Together" by The Turtles, "California Dreaming" by The Mamas and Papas, and "Time of the Season" by the Zombies (which I chose as song of the night) that really showcased the strong harmonies and versatility of the former Broadway stars.

The orchestra also had its moments to shine. As the show opener, the NSO performed an extended instrumental version of "On Broadway," which was arranged by Reinke and featured several solos from orchestra members. It might also have been the 1st time in NSO history when they played the horn- driven opening of Sam and Dave's classic "Hold On, I'm Coming" to bring The Midtown Men to the stage.

But the real highlight for the NSO was a world-premier performance of an especially commissioned medley of the 5 songs - "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "All My Loving," "Till There Was You,""I Saw Her Standing There" and "She Loves You" - which the Beatles played 50 years ago on their first appearance of the Ed Sullivan Show, a show which was watched by a then-record 70 million viewers. (Did we like it - yeah, yeah, yeah).

After the Motown medley, which included a stellar version of The Temptations "Just My Imagination," The Midtown Men closed the show with the Frankie Valli chart-topper "Oh, What a Night (December, 1963). Hearty applause brought the group back for an encore of The Four Seasons' "Bye, Bye Baby (Baby Goodbye).

Extra! Extra! Read All About It

Setlist for Sensational Show with The Midtown Men 
backed by The National Symphony Orchestra
If You Can Get Tickets for Tonight's Show, Go

1st Set

• On Broadway (NSO under direction of Steven Reinke)
• Working My Way Back to You Babe
• Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
• Let's Hang On
• Can't Buy Me Love
• Happy Together
• Ain't That Peculiar
• Dawn (Go Away)
• Up on the Roof
• Time of the Season
• Cry for Me (from Jersey Boys)
• Big Girls Don't Cry
• Sherry
• Ain't No Mountain High Enough

2nd Set

• Ed Sullivan Welcomes the Beatles (NSO)
• River Deep Mountain High
• California Dreaming
• Can't Take My Eyes Off of You
• Motown Medley
• Oh, What A Night (December, 1963)

Encore

• Bye, Bye Baby (Baby Goodbye)

The Symphonic Dead

Haynes performing symphonic Garcia show in Pittsburgh.

Even in his most surreal acid trip or heaviest heroin nod, I doubt Grateful Dead guitarist and counterculture idol Jerry Garcia ever imagined the National Symphony Orchestra performing 2 full sets of his music at their summer Wolf Trap amphitheater home.

Garcia's guitar "Wolf"

However, that was the case last night as Allman Brothers and Govt. Mule guitarist Warren Haynes, whose own following is a mini-version of Garcia's devoted fan base, joined with the NSO to present the Garcia/Dead symphonic show. In an even more fitting tribute to Garcia, who died in 1995 just 8 days after his 53rd birthday, Haynes, who has toured in Garcia's lead guitar spot for the Dead, used Wolf, one of the Garcia's favorite personal guitars for the event.

The Haynes/NSO collaboration was filled out with rockers Jeff Sipe on drums, Lincoln Schlrifer on bass, and Alecia Chakour and Jasmine Muhammad on background vocals.

The crowd was an interesting mix of NSO aficionados, Haynes followers, and, judging by the abundant amount of tie-dye in the crowd, mostly Grateful Dead fans. NSO conductor Emil de Cou even got in the Dead spirit by wearing a tie-dye T-shirt for the 2nd set.

The night began with an abbreviated version of "Dark Star," a Dead jam instrumental classic which the band would sometimes play for half-an-hour. The 1st set highlight was a funky (now there is an adjective you don't usually associate with a symphony concert) version of "Shakedown Street." Judging by crowd reactions, the set 2 highlights were "Terrapin Station" and "Uncle John's Band".

Even with his reputation as a guitar star and his time with the Dead, much of the crowd voiced pleasant astonishment at Haynes' spot on channeling of Garcia's signature guitar sound. If you closed your eyes, it was easy to believe it was Garcia, not Haynes, providing the lead.

Haynes solos away.

The show was the 1st performance at the Wolf Trap this summer for the NSO. And I'm fairly certain it set many symphony records including:

• the most tie-dye ever at a National Symphony concert
• the most, and the most sustained, noodle dancing
• the longest drum solo and
• the most pungent wafts of marijuana smoke

The DC concert was one of about a dozen symphonic Garcia shows Haynes is performing around America. The guitarist was asked to come up with the shows by Jerry Garcia's estate. Although he said he was honored and agreed to do it, Haynes told The Philadelphia Inquirer earlier this month he is no expert on orchestral music, but knows what he likes (the avant-garde of Stravinsky and Stockhausen, "the heavier, weirder stuff that influenced [Frank] Zappa"). He said he was anxious to sink his teeth into the power, dynamics, and range a full orchestra offers: "Great symphonies go from a whisper to a scream and everywhere in-between."

Knowing he'd have 90-piece symphony orchestras as his backing, Haynes, with the help of Dead bassist Phil Lesh, sought arrangers, found songs of the Dead and Garcia that lent themselves to the sort of angular orchestration he favored.

"We even went back and orchestrated some of Jerry's improvisations, so the effect is this layered wall of sound," Haynes told The Inquirer.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Here is the complete song list for the concert.
Set 1

• Dark Star
• Bird Song
• Crazy Fingers
• Scarlet Begonias
• Ship of Fools
• Shakedown Street
• China Cat Sunflower
• Morning Dew

Set 2

• Mission in the Rain
• High Time
• Russian Lullaby
• Uncle John's Band
• West LA Fadeaway
• Terrapin Station
• Slipknot
• Terrapin Flyer

Encore

• Patchwork Quilt
• Stella Blue