OK, so you couldn't afford - or didn't want to pay - $135 for a Woodstock ticket - or even the 50 bucks to watch it on Pay Per View. The concert you should have been to Friday was just down the street at Abravanel Hall. And if you were unfortunate to miss it, you can catch it outdoors at Deer Valley on Saturday.
You won't get the drug-induced, spaced-out music of the late '60s. What Flash Cadillac and the Utah Symphony delivered was strictly good ol' rock 'n' roll. And lots of it.You know you're in for a treat when the conductor shows up wearing a West High letter jacket, half the symphony players are wearing pedal pushers or flood pants and white socks, and the xylophonist has his hair slicked back in a pony tail and his T-shirt reads: Harley Davidson.
A typical symphony concert will get you perhaps half a dozen tunes, and that's if you can stay awake through the Brahms. What Flash Cadillac and Kory Katseanes delivered was a 28-song playlist that contained nearly every song you've been listening to for the past 30 or 40 years and enough artists to make everyone happy in the politically correct climate of the '90s.
As the group remarked, "We steal songs from dead composers - just like the orchestra here. We call them decomposing composers."
From the first "Shake Rattle `n' Roll" to the closing encore "True Love Ways," the group kept the show moving and upbeat, performing familiar arrangements and backed up by their 80-piece band.
Just when you thought the roof was going to blow off Abravanel Hall, in came the sad ballads - or "bad salads," as another band member remarked - depending on your taste. "Sixteen Candles," "Donna" and "Since I Don't Have You" were sung romantically accompanied by the full orchestra. Then it was back to rock 'n' roll.
"I can name that tune in zero notes!" said one of the players, and out came Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman," followed by a couple more ballads, then Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock," "Later Than Midnight" and "Needles and Pins," written by - of all people - Sonny Bono.
"Higher and Higher" brought the first half of the concert to a close and only hinted at what was in store after intermission. The musicians brought out the Beatles' "Penny Lane," then broke into a couple of surfing numbers, including "Souvenir of California" with recorded surf and seagull sounds. At that point Flash Cadillac slipped in an unscheduled "At the Hop" and played a couple of rhythm and blues sounds with "Night Train" and "My Girl" before winding up with a rousing rock medley of "Great Balls of Fire," "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Surfin' USA."
Encore number was "Shout" with the Abravanel Hall crowd on its feet dancing and jumping, clapping and shouting. It could have been halftime at the Delta Center for all anyone cared.
The Utah Symphony performed smartly throughout the night with the band acknowledging the orchestra's work several times but appreciatively after "Whiter Shade of Pale."
Friday night wasn't Woodstock, but who needs Woodstock when you've got the '50s and '60s live and in concert?. Who needs Arrested Development when you've got Chuck Berry - played by Flash Cadillac?
Even gray-haired Gladys said as she headed out of Abravanel Hall, "I could have listened to it all night." And this from someone whose living room radio was probably tuned to Burns and Allen back then.
Yes, Gladys, so could I.