Happy Together
Riviera Theater
North Tonawanda, NY
August 1, 2017


Recorded and mastered by Poignant Pros (}{eywood)
Location: front row of balcony center (as always at The Riv)
Lineage: Teac VR-20 (recording to 24/48 .wav) > USB > Adobe Audition 1.5 (EQ, peaik limiting, splits & fades) > Xrecode III (conversion to 16/44.1) > TLH (sector alignment, flac 8)


I probably should've gotten to it sooner, but I always wanted to see The Turtles, as I feel that Happy Together is oner of the two greatest pop songs ever written (the greatest is Good Vibrations). I was somewhat taken aback by the absence of Howard Kaylan, who only took off the end of the 2018 tour to nurse a bad back, yet seems to have never returned. His replacement, Ron Dante (formerly of The Archies) was the best performer there the whole night, so I wasn't all that disappointed.

The Cowsills were pretty impressive just because the guy in the middle was as energetic as a small child, dancing and moving about the stage furiously. Love American Style is one of the worst songs I've ever heard, but he sure sold it with his smiling, dancing performance.

The Vogues were pretty good, although I only know acouple of their songs.

Classics IV (of which there are two) I left the venue. Smooth saxophone jazz is not my thing.

Having recorded The Association multiple times before, the Poignant Pros team was not impressed with the performance this night, one singer being flat throughout and ruining many of the harmonies (Cherish was cringe inducing in both myself and Binko's sister).

Gary Puckett's vibrato is so wide you could drive a tank through it.

Mark Volman seemed like he just woke up, and was wearing a shirt that looked suspiciously like a pajama top. Maybe they had to break him out of the old folks home. Whenever he had to sing along with Ron they turned his mic off.

All in all this came off as what it was: a bunch of musicians in their 70's trying to recapture the spirit of the late 60s.




01 Intro

The Cowsills:

02 Cowsills intro
03 The Rain, The Park, and Other Things (Flower Girl)
04 We Can Fly
05 banter
06 Indian Lake
07 banter
08 Love American Style
09 banter
10 Hair

Classics IV

11 Classics IV intro
12 Everyday With You Girl
13 Stormy
14 Traces intro
15 Traces of Love
16 Spooky

The Vogues

17 Vogues intro
18 Five o'Clock World
19 My Special Angel
20 Turn Around intro
21 Turn Around, Look at Me
22 You're the One intro
23 You're the One

The Association

24 The Association intro
25 Windy
26 Never My Love intro
27 Never My Love
28 Cherish intro
29 Cherish
30 Mary intro
31 Along Comes Mary

Gary Puckett

32 Gary Puckett intro
33 Lady Willpower
34 Over You
35 This Girl is a Woman Now
36 Woman intro
37 Woman Woman (Have You Got Cheating on Your Mind)
38 Young Girl

The Turtles

39 Turtles intro
40 She'd Rather Be With Me
41 You Baby
42 It Ain't Me Babe intro
43 It Ain't Me Babe
44 band intros & Sugar intro
45 Sugar Sugar
46 banter
47 Peaches en Regalia
48 Elenore
49 Happy Together
50 Outro Medley: The Rain, The Park, and Other Things / Spooky / Five o'Clock World / Windy / Young Girl / Happy Togther