The Stompers ~ 2013 July 27 ~ Blue Ocean Music Hall ~ Salisbury Beach, MA
Band Personnel: Sal Baglio, lead vocals, lead guitar; Jeremy Brown, electric piano, backing vocals; Dave Friedman, electric organ, backing vocals; Steve Gilligan, electric bass, backing vocals, lead vocal on one song; Lenny Shea, drums; featuring The Stompettes on backing vocals on several songs: Susan Cattaneo, Ruby Bird, and Erica Rodney Rothenberg
Opening set by Bird Mancini: Ruby Bird on vocals, accordion, melodica, percussion; Billy Carl Mancini on vocals, guitar
Set List
Good News Now - Wilcox County Rock - Leave It In Motion - 21st Century Rock 'n' Roll Boy {Rock E. Rollins} - Girls In Summer - She's An Angel - Shutdown - First Kiss - You're the One - Temptation - One Heart For Sale - East Side Girl - The Weight {The Band} - What's a Little Rock 'n' Roll Between Friends {Steve Gilligan solo} - Lonely Beach - Palisades Park - American Fun - Rock Jump and Holler - Never Tell An Angel - Coast To Coast ... encore ... All I Want To Do Is Rock 'n' Roll - Movin' On Up {Jeffersons TV theme} - With a Little Help From My Friends {Joe Cocker style; lead vocal by Ruby Bird} - This is Rock 'n' Roll
Scroll down past the videos for review; photo gallery is to the right.
Videos
"Shutdown":
"One Heart For Sale":
Review
The Stompers continue their "35 and Alive" celebration, whooping it up on stages around the Greater Boston area for three and a half decades. King Stomper Sal Baglio at one point rejoiced that three generations of Stompers fans were at the show: original fans from their first wave of popularity in the early 1980s, and their kids and even grandkids! So it's an oldies show, but full of such joy and wild abandon that the songs all sound like they're new today.
The Stompers perform a higher percentage of songs with the words "rock 'n' roll" in the title than any other band I've seen. And that tells you all you need to know about what kind of music they play.
I had been to the Blue Ocean Music Hall in this lively beach town once (to see Dave Davies in 2000), when it was called the Beach Club. New ownership has spiffed the place up quite a bit. Tables seating six fill the room, a big high stage affords good visibility for all, a short inexpensive menu provides decent pub food before the show. I don't remember how the sound was back in 2000, but it was exceptionally good for this show. A non-stop, high energy light show accompanied the band adding to the excitement of the music.
The show was opened by Bird Mancini, consisting of Ruby Bird on lead vocals, accordion, melodica and a wide variety of interesting percussion, and Billy Carl Mancini on vocals and guitar, an acoustic rock duo with blues overtunes. Their songs were well written and there was a good degree of variety from one song to the next. Ruby later joined the Stompers on stage along with two other female vocalists to form "the Stompettes" backing trio, and also took the lead vocal during the encore set for a Joe Cocker-style "With a Little Help From My Friends."
Any Stompers show is full of highlights. During "The Weight" both Jeremy Brown and Steve Gilligan take a lead vocal on one verse. The Stompers classic "Girls In Summer" is reworked to become a blues song. "Temptation" goes on for over ten minutes, with Sal going off into unknown nether regions on lead guitar, and Dave Friedman tossing in a solo on the electric organ. The show begins with an instant sing-along, "Good News Now." During "Lonely Beach" Jeremy Brown plays a nasty electric piano solo. The main set ends with a killer quartet of the Stompers' most popular WBCN radio hits. "Palisades Park" is the most fun five guys ever have on stage. (Steve Gilligan goes home with a sore face from all that grinning.) Steve Gilligan plays a song from his solo album of last year ("What's a Little Rock 'n' Roll Between Friends"). The band plays a song by Rock E. Rollins (who was actually Sal Baglio in disguise!) called "21st Century Rock 'n' Roll Boy."
Although this band contains two keyboard players and just one guitarist, it somehow manages to be a guitar band. Sal Baglio is a terrific guitarist who leads the sound of this band without being really obvious about it. He solos when he needs to solo, hangs back when he needs to hang back. The whole thing works with perfection, and one wonders (for the millionth time!) why these guys didn't make it big.
More Stompers
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