As such, I have witnessed Hall and Oates open for ELO in the late ‘70’s … Elton John as the opening act for headliners Three Dog Night … and even Jim Croce warm up the crowd for Jackson Browne.
ALL of these artists were virtually unknown at the time … but right at the tip of future stardom.
Even a big name act like Burton Cummings had to open for Melissa Manchester and then, just a few months later, Alice Cooper (!!!) when he was trying to launch his solo career.
I saw England Dan and John Ford Coley open for both America and Neil Sedaka in the mid-‘70’s, right before they became headliners themselves.
The act that opened for The Atlanta Rhythm Section Saturday Night (March 2nd) at The Arcada Theatre were NOTHING like any of these examples.
In fact, Ask The Natives performed what can only be described as a muddy mix of unremarkable originals that left most of the crowd (other than their own fan base that they brought along to the show) bewildered by just what it was they were trying to achieve.
The set-up was somewhat unique … guitar, bass and drums performing behind an amazing violinist, who took the leads on every song they played. Problem was, good as he was, you couldn’t hear him!
The mix was SO bad that the lead vocals provided by the guitarist were undecipherable due to the guitar and drums being SO loud that they simply overpowered and blocked out the vocals and the shining point of the band … the violin solos on every tune.
In fact, as a result of this performance I can only dismiss them as both unremarkable and unmemorable.
So why mention them at all, you may ask … why devote this much web space to an act you didn’t like and clearly can’t endorse?
Because there is a lesson to be learned here for other opening acts in the future.
These guys absolutely had their shit together in the way of marketing and fancy effects. Their entire performance was video taped … they had their own merchandise table in the lobby selling t-shirts and cd’s … and the whole time they were playing these awesome video graphics were showing on the big screen behind them … yet they couldn’t “sell it” because of a bad mix.
That and the fact that they didn’t even seem to know (or show any respect for) the headlining act they were opening for.
When they announced their last song before “bringing out The ATLANTIC Rhythm Section,” the coffin was sealed for me.
Opening Acts everywhere … this message is for you …
Don’t blow your opportunity to make an impression on a new audience seeing you for the very first time. You worked long and hard to earn this opportunity. And show some genuine respect for the act that has afforded you this spot. (When we saw Jeff Lynne’s Electric Light Orchestra last summer, we were totally impressed with his warm up act, Dawes, who we had never even heard of before. Yet they won us over, playing a strong set of good music that made us think we might like to see them again somewhere down the road … a pretty high endorsement for a crowd that
was clearly there ONLY to see ELO!)
Was this a good mix … Ask The Natives and The Atlanta Rhythm Section? An avant-garde rock band opening for southern rock legends? Probably not. But had they won over the crowd with their set, they just may have attracted a brand new group of fans who would seek them out again.
Instead the general feeling seemed to be that nobody was going to Ask The Natives much of ANYTHING after this performance.
And now on to the main attraction … The ATLANTA Rhythm Section. (These guys are from Georgia … which, just for the sake of argument, DOES border on the Atlantic Ocean, I guess … but this is NOT the source of inspiration for their name.)
And now on to the main attraction … The ATLANTA Rhythm Section. (These guys are from Georgia … which, just for the sake of argument, DOES border on the Atlantic Ocean, I guess … but this is NOT the source of inspiration for their name.)
Sadly, they never received a proper introduction at The Arcada Theatre Saturday Night … host master Ron Onesti was evidently unavailable and, as such, I wish he would have invited me to present the band … but that didn’t happen … instead, one of their roadies simply said, “St. Charles, please give a warm welcome to The Atlanta Rhythm Section!” … and that was it.
There was so much more that could have been said.
From the very first time I heard the opening notes to “So In To You” back in 1977 I was hooked.
I hadn’t heard anything quite like that before. I ended up buying all of their albums after that. And their hit list was extensive: “Doraville” (#35, 1974), “Jukin’” (#75, 1976), “So In To You” (#5, 1977), “Neon Nights” (#42, 1977), “Georgia Rhythm” (#68, 1977), “Imaginary Lover” (#7, 1978), “I’m Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight” (#14, 1978), “Champagne Jam” (#43, 1978), “Do It Or Die” (#19, 1979), their incredible remake of “Spooky” (#15, 1979) … and the highlight of their live show for me … and their “comeback” hit “Alien” (#27, 1981) … all these tracks got extensive airplay on the FM dial at the time ... and you still hear quite a few of them today.
The Atlanta Rhythm Section has gone through some hard times over the last couple of decades. (For the best and most detailed and extensive history of the band, much of it told in their own words, I highly recommend the Jeff March and Marti Smiley Childs book “Where Have All The Pop Star Gone?, Volume 3,” available here:
and here: http://editpros.com/WHATPSG_Vol_3.html
In fact, this entire series provides in-depth looks at some of the biggest stars of the ‘60s and ‘70’s … and is highly recommended.)
A band history / profile is also available both on the band’s website as well as in a new publication titled “The Atlanta Rhythm Section: The Authorized History” by Willie G. Moseley.
So many members have passed through the revolving door that is The Atlanta Rhythm Section over the years … so many other key influential members have died … that I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when the band took the stage.
What we got was a GREAT mix of musicians … including TWO dueling lead guitarists, each of whom not only complimented each other (both literally and figuratively), but also captured most of the spotlight throughout the entire concert experience. Several times the crowd awarded huge ovations mid-song due to the incredible playing that was going on on stage.
For that we can thank Steve Stone and David Anderson, two incredibly talented and accomplished guitarists who love and respect this music … and each other’s ability to play it.
It was a pleasure to see original lead vocalist Rodney Justo back out front. (Justo quit after the band’s first album … but returned for short stints with the banda in both 1983 and 2008 … and has been back for good since 2011.)
Rodney does a commendable job handling all of the leads … and has the right voice for this special brand of southern rock. He’s a very personable spokesman for the group and did a great job of entertaining us by poking fun at both himself and the other band members.
Also on board is original keyboardist Dean Daughtry, who has essentially been with the band since their beginnings in 1971. It is quite obvious that Dean has a very difficult time getting around these days … but once he was helped to his keyboard and propped up to play, he was just as into this music as we were.
Rounding out the current line-up are bassist Justin Senker and drummer Rodger Stephan.
They’ve got several more shows lined up thru the rest of the year … a complete touring schedule can be found here: http://atlantarhythmsection.com/arsNews.php
If you get the chance to see them, go …
Release your inner Joe Dirt …
And enjoy the show! (kk)
JUST FOR FUN:
A couple of weeks ago FH Reader Frank B mentioned that Wild Wayne played a 45 by The Angels which, if played at its proper speed, showed a beautiful song by a girl doo-wop group … but if slowed down to 33 1/3, became a beautiful song by a GUY doo-wop group.
Well, several years ago, we took the opposite approach with one of The Atlanta Rhythm Section’s biggests hit “Imaginary Lover” … only in OUR experiment, we sped the album track up to 45 rpm … and discovered a brand new version of the song seemingly sung by Stevie Nicks!
Give it a listen … it’s quite uncanny!
DIDJA KNOW:
The Atlanta Rhythm Section has their roots in the very successful 1960's band The Classics IV ...
Former members Dean Daughtry, J.R. Cobb and Songwriter / Producer Buddy Buie started their own recording studio in the early '70's and it was during these sessions that The Atlanta Rhythm Section evolved. Their remake of The Classics IV hit "Spooky" was a complete reimagining of the popular tune ... and became a hit all over again in 1979.
Thanks to Ron Onesti, we were able to do a last-minute ticket give-away to some of the "locals" on our list and invite about twenty of our Forgotten Hits Readers to join us for the show. (Thanks, too, to Ron and Arcada House Photographer Lou Bilotti for allowing us to share some of these photos with you on our website!)
Here are reports from a few of them regarding their thoughts on the concert ...
Well, when Kent advised us that he had tickets and asked if we wanted to go and see ARS I figured, well, I have heard a few of their songs and I thought it will be fun. Plus, I got to sit right next to Kent and talk to him.
Before I emailed Kent back I thought, wait a second ... the question most concert goers ask is who is left of the original members. Much to my satisfaction there was two.
Most important was Rodney Justo, the lead singer and Dean Daughtry, the organist was still manning the helm.
I enjoyed the concert mostly because of Rodney. Great voice and you could tell that he enjoyed being out there. l must admit, I didn't think I knew much of their material.Ya, I knew "So In To You" and "Imaginary Lover." Well, the old man was surprised when they performed "Spooky" ... hey, ya, I forgot the Classics IV connection with Dean and former guitarist JR Cobb, who were with the 4. Slowly but surely the old man (me) remembered and smiled when ARS performed "I'm Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight," "Champagne Jam" and "Do It Or Die." Damn, they had more hits then I thought!
The show was well done but here is my 2-cents worth.
I don't dig excessive guitar jams. I thought there was too much for my taste. Also, I wish I had heard more of the organ in the blend. Lastly, I would have loved for them do a few of the classic rock songs like "Blue Suede Shoes" ... I think they could have kicked some ass on something like that.
A special salute to Dean who has soldiered on. I don't know what happened but apparently he was in a wheel chair (during?) after the concert. Now here is a man that has not let a handicap get into his way of his love of performing. God bless!
Department of Accuracy ... Well, I found out that Rodney Justo sang on the 1st album (no hits) and Ronnie Hammond sang all of their hits. Still Rodney gave a great performance. Mike De Martino
Thank you (and Ron!) again for the tickets to see The Atlanta Rhythm Section Saturday Night. I thought it was a great show.
I remember buying their albums when they came out ... always liked their music. (In fact, I dug a couple of them out on Sunday after seeing the show.) I knew they had a lot of hits but they played some I had forgotten all about.
I didn't realize that Rodney Justo wasn't the original singer on all these records. (Well, I guess technically he WAS the original singer ... but left the band before they started having hits.) He did a great job as far as I was concerned ... very personable and entertaining ... made us laugh several times. And the song he sang after talking about being married to the same woman for 59 years was just beautiful. He would have to say the Justo Gusto made the show everything it was.
And that's not taking anything away from the rest of the band. Their two guitarists were just amazing ... I loved the way they played off each other. And even though it was clearly hard for keyboard player Dean Daughtry to get around, it was obvious that he's still doing this ... at whatever personal inconvenience ... for the love of the music.
Yes, the crowd was small ... but they were very enthusiastic, rewarding the band with multiple ovations throughout their set. I liked the "planned encore" piece at the end, too.
Thanks again ... we had a really good time.
John Edwards
The "successful marriage" song you're referring to is called "Conversation" and I had never heard it before the show Saturday Night. What a GREAT track! I immediately downloaded it Sunday Morning! (kk)
We were fortunate enough to have been selected to win tickets to the Atlanta Rhythm Section concert on Saturday night, March 2, at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles. Thanks, Kent Kotal. It is always a pleasure to see you.
Unfortunately, the ticket sales were rather light. The hall was half-full, at best. Atlanta Rhythm Section’s performance certainly deserved better.
The opening act was “Ask the Natives,” a quartet composed of guitar, drums, bass and violin. The violinist was very competent. The sound mix was not very good and seemed a little distorted. The guitarist was very hard to hear on vocals. The drummer seemed to want to show off how hard he could beat the skins. I was not impressed.
Atlanta Rhythm Section contains two original members of the 1970 line-up, Dean Daughtry on keyboards and Rodney Justo providing vocals. Steve Stone and David Anderson on guitars, Justin Senker on bass and Rodger Stephan on drums round out the line-up.
I thoroughly enjoyed the show. Stone and Anderson were both incredible guitarists and my judgement of which was better changed from song to song.
It’s hard to watch my heroes from my younger years grow old. Justo joked about his pants falling down, “When you get old, your pants try to find the point of least resistance.”
Daughtry had a difficult time getting on stage to his seat behind his organ. As the show neared the end, Justo said, “You know how the band plays the last song and hopefully you like it enough to call us back for an encore? Well, we are going to play the last song and we’d like you to pretend that we walk off the stage and you can call us back up. We have a hard time getting Dean on and off the stage.” It was difficult to watch the roadies and band members load Daughtry into a wheel chair at show’s end.
The band played their hits and much more. Concert favorites “Homesick,” “Large Time,” and “Jukin” were played as well as the songs that made the charts. “Champagne Jam,” “Spooky (a Classics IV cover that charted for ARS), “I'm Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight,” “So Into You” and “Imaginary Lover” all sounded really good.
My wife, Joyce, thought the show was fine, but nothing more. She didn’t like “Ask the Natives” much more than I did. As far as ARS, she thought Rodney Justo was in very good form on vocals. She thought the two lead guitarists were extremely talented. She said there were far too many lengthy guitar solos for her liking. She said she outgrew that stage back in the 80’s.
At one point during the show after ARS played “Imaginary Lover” and “So Into You,” she leaned over and whispered in my ear, “I feel like we are at the grocery store. I can’t believe the music of our younger days has become elevator music.”
I guess it has, but I still love it. I truly enjoyed the Atlanta Rhythm Section and would not hesitate to go and see them again.
Steve Sarley
Hi Kent!
Thank you (and Ron!) again for the tickets to see The Atlanta Rhythm Section Saturday Night. I thought it was a great show.
I remember buying their albums when they came out ... always liked their music. (In fact, I dug a couple of them out on Sunday after seeing the show.) I knew they had a lot of hits but they played some I had forgotten all about.
I didn't realize that Rodney Justo wasn't the original singer on all these records. (Well, I guess technically he WAS the original singer ... but left the band before they started having hits.) He did a great job as far as I was concerned ... very personable and entertaining ... made us laugh several times. And the song he sang after talking about being married to the same woman for 59 years was just beautiful. He would have to say the Justo Gusto made the show everything it was.
And that's not taking anything away from the rest of the band. Their two guitarists were just amazing ... I loved the way they played off each other. And even though it was clearly hard for keyboard player Dean Daughtry to get around, it was obvious that he's still doing this ... at whatever personal inconvenience ... for the love of the music.
Yes, the crowd was small ... but they were very enthusiastic, rewarding the band with multiple ovations throughout their set. I liked the "planned encore" piece at the end, too.
Thanks again ... we had a really good time.
John Edwards
The "successful marriage" song you're referring to is called "Conversation" and I had never heard it before the show Saturday Night. What a GREAT track! I immediately downloaded it Sunday Morning! (kk)
We were fortunate enough to have been selected to win tickets to the Atlanta Rhythm Section concert on Saturday night, March 2, at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles. Thanks, Kent Kotal. It is always a pleasure to see you.
Unfortunately, the ticket sales were rather light. The hall was half-full, at best. Atlanta Rhythm Section’s performance certainly deserved better.
The opening act was “Ask the Natives,” a quartet composed of guitar, drums, bass and violin. The violinist was very competent. The sound mix was not very good and seemed a little distorted. The guitarist was very hard to hear on vocals. The drummer seemed to want to show off how hard he could beat the skins. I was not impressed.
Atlanta Rhythm Section contains two original members of the 1970 line-up, Dean Daughtry on keyboards and Rodney Justo providing vocals. Steve Stone and David Anderson on guitars, Justin Senker on bass and Rodger Stephan on drums round out the line-up.
I thoroughly enjoyed the show. Stone and Anderson were both incredible guitarists and my judgement of which was better changed from song to song.
It’s hard to watch my heroes from my younger years grow old. Justo joked about his pants falling down, “When you get old, your pants try to find the point of least resistance.”
Daughtry had a difficult time getting on stage to his seat behind his organ. As the show neared the end, Justo said, “You know how the band plays the last song and hopefully you like it enough to call us back for an encore? Well, we are going to play the last song and we’d like you to pretend that we walk off the stage and you can call us back up. We have a hard time getting Dean on and off the stage.” It was difficult to watch the roadies and band members load Daughtry into a wheel chair at show’s end.
The band played their hits and much more. Concert favorites “Homesick,” “Large Time,” and “Jukin” were played as well as the songs that made the charts. “Champagne Jam,” “Spooky (a Classics IV cover that charted for ARS), “I'm Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight,” “So Into You” and “Imaginary Lover” all sounded really good.
My wife, Joyce, thought the show was fine, but nothing more. She didn’t like “Ask the Natives” much more than I did. As far as ARS, she thought Rodney Justo was in very good form on vocals. She thought the two lead guitarists were extremely talented. She said there were far too many lengthy guitar solos for her liking. She said she outgrew that stage back in the 80’s.
At one point during the show after ARS played “Imaginary Lover” and “So Into You,” she leaned over and whispered in my ear, “I feel like we are at the grocery store. I can’t believe the music of our younger days has become elevator music.”
I guess it has, but I still love it. I truly enjoyed the Atlanta Rhythm Section and would not hesitate to go and see them again.
Steve Sarley
Hi Kent!
Really enjoyed the Atlanta Rhythm Section at The Arcada last night ...THX for the tickets.
The Arcada was only about half full on a Saturday night with an enthusiasticand unusually well-mannered crowd, I thought.
The band opened really strong with "Homesick," Champagne Jam" and "Spooky" ...and the hits kept coming ... "So Into You" and "I'm Not Going To Let It Bother Me Tonight" sounding unusually timely.
Kind of fun to hear all the usual suspects arguing if their version of "Spooky" was better than The Classics IV's version. We didn't think so - it needed much bigger keyboard and vocals.
The stage was split by strong lead guitarists David Anderson and Steve Stone, who took turns blowing us away with amazing solos ... (practice obviously make perfect) ... and Dean Daughtry and Rodney Justo center. Rodney Justo did a good job as the lead singer / frontman ... had us laughing, too.
They played for about an hour and a half with a last song rolled into an encore ... yes, "Imaginary Lover."
Walking out next to a fellow rocker, he and I had the same thought that we missed "Another Man's Woman" and that the bass player was no Paul Goddard of course.
Another surprisingly good Arcada Retro "Classic Rock" show of an underrated band.
Also really enjoyed the "Ask The Natives" warm up band formed in 2018, winner of a contest at the Arcada last year. Nice quartet switch up rock and blues with an electric violin and merciless drummer. Watch out for them. Maybe four songs and out, Perfect.
Happy Trailz,
Bill & Jan
The way they staged their "encore" was also quite comical. Because it is SO difficult moving Dean Daughtry around on stage, Justo said that normally they would play one more song, leave the stage and then, hopefully, come back out to do an encore. But since it was SO hard for Dean to move, they would instead do TWO songs, one of which we could consider the encore ... so that's exactly what they did, to a standing ovation as they ultimately left the stage and went out to the lobby to sign autographs and hawk t-shirts and cd's. (We didn't hang around ... but I was able to catch Rodney Justo for just a second to tell him what a great job he did and how much we enjoyed the concert.) Overall, a fun night of music ... that deserved a bigger crowd. (kk)
If you are a Forgotten Hits Reader and live in the Chicagland area and would like to take advantage of special concert announcements and ticket offers, drop us a line and we'll add you to our "Locals" List! This week alone FH Readers won tickets to see The Atlanta Rhythm Section at The Arcada Theatre, The Ides Of March and John Sebastian at The City Winery and Paul Revere's Raiders at the Athenaeum Theater in Chicago.*
*NOTE: The Paul Revere's Raiders show has since been cancelled.
If you are a Forgotten Hits Reader and live in the Chicagland area and would like to take advantage of special concert announcements and ticket offers, drop us a line and we'll add you to our "Locals" List! This week alone FH Readers won tickets to see The Atlanta Rhythm Section at The Arcada Theatre, The Ides Of March and John Sebastian at The City Winery and Paul Revere's Raiders at the Athenaeum Theater in Chicago.*
*NOTE: The Paul Revere's Raiders show has since been cancelled.
