I’m working with Chubby Checker tonight and to be honest I forgot just how good his band sounds. Jim (keys), Avery (guitar), Harry (drums), Joseph (bass), and Branden (sax).
The sound of that Hammond organ is classic. They are unbelievably exciting! That old rock and roll sound. Then there’s Chubby delivering the lead vocals with an unmistakable voice. (But he’s also unmistakably not here for sound check.)
This marks the fourth time I’ve worked with them, first in 1998, New Years Eve 2000, 2018 and now.
I’m on stage as an A2 for sound check and they are playing The Fats Domino song Blueberry Hill. It sounds great up here. That’s in good part due to Kerry’s awesome monitor mix.
Last time Chubby Checker was here in 2018 with Frankie Avalon. I wrote about that in the manuscript for my (hopefully) soon to be published book Stagehand: A Backstage Pass to my Life Stories. (I gave a copy of the chapter to his manager Shelly for him today.)
Today has been a more smooth running day than that last one, when we had a few technical problems.
Opening the show tonight is Gary Lewis and the Playboys, we’re moving along to sound check them right now. Ideally the bands will soundcheck in reverse order, which they’re doing today but didn’t happen last time. Really Chubby doesn’t need an opening band to make him sound better, but he definitely has one. I’d give a more thorough review but Mom always said if I can’t say something good just say nothing at all. Well I guess I can say that the band members are all friendly and play well, I suppose I’m just not a fan of the singer Gary’s style of vocals.
It’s also another night filled with rolling risers for the drums and keyboards and also re-patching inputs between bands like a lighter version of last night with Jim Messina, no big deal though.
It’s easier working tonight because Jack and Kerry (our house crew) are mixing the show on our own desks, so no guest audio engineers or audio gear belonging to anyone else.
At showtime Chubby takes the stage singing Good Lovin, written by Rudy Clark and Arthur Resnick. It was a #1 hit single for the Young Rascals in 1966. Chubby doesn’t look or sound a day older than the last time he was here, this guy just knows how to rock! He’s dancing all over the place, out in the audience, all over the stage, singing up a storm and the band is killing it! They are as tight as a band could be. The audience is going crazy. If you have never seen Chubby Checker in concert I suggest you try to catch him if you can. There is a reason why Chubby Checker is a legend.Definitely the kind of show that makes me glad to be working on this stage.
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