Oh yeah, baby! Boomers have a blast at '70s concert
By Catherine Reese Newton
The Salt Lake Tribune
* WITH: Music director Keith Lockhart and Rockapella.
* WHERE: Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City.
* BOTTOM LINE: The Utah Symphony salutes baby-boomer culture, and if you didn't know better, you could swear you were at a hockey game instead of Abravanel Hall.
Memo to Keith Lockhart: If you threw a 'Baby Boomer Bash' every year, you probably could be elected mayor of this town.
Lockhart and the Utah Symphony played a boatload of '70s tunes Friday, and the Abravanel Hall crowd went nuts - clapping, cheering and singing at the top of its lungs to such hits as "Celebrate," "Margaritaville," "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" and, yes, "Feelings." Even the youngsters who know the songs only from late-night K-Tel commercials were hard-pressed to resist Lockhart's manic charm as he led the sing-alongs, dashed into the crowd to serenade audience members on "Feelings" and even put his high-school prom picture on the big screen for all to see.
As much love as the crowd showed the Utah Symphony music director, the five members of Rockapella earned even heartier cheers. If you've ever wondered what you'd get if you put the King's Singers in a blender with the Four Tops, your answer was onstage Friday, wowing listeners with shiny vocal harmonies and polished choreography. Vocal percussionist Jeff Thacher, basso profundo George Baldi III, tenor Kevin Wright, baritone John Brown and the de facto frontman, Owen Wilson lookalike Scott Leonard, showed off a remarkably full sound in their unaccompanied numbers and blended nicely with the orchestra in arrangements of "Philadelphia Freedom" and "The Beat Goes On."
Oddly enough, Rockapella did not perform its best-known hit, the theme song from "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego" - the closest it came was the line "don't know much about geography" in "Wonderful World," which earned knowing chuckles from the crowd.
The orchestra filled out the program with milestones of '70s film and television music. A rousing rendition of "Stars and Stripes Forever" seemed like a curious addition; perhaps it was a salute to Lockhart's other orchestra, the Boston Pops, where baby-boomer evenings are a mainstay.
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