Whoa trip-py: the Flashback Experience takes me back in time

For a minute there I thought it had all been a dream.  I woke up cloudy-headed on Friday morning wondering if I had really witnessed the re-embodiment of the Doors and Led Zeppelin, watched a convincing Janis Joplin performance by a long-haired woman with hippie garb and kicka$$ boots, and danced among an auditorium crowd of baby boomers who hadn’t moved like that in twenty years.

Despite the dreamy, fog machine-haze of the night before, it was, in fact, real.  It was Flashback – the Classic Rock Experience.

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Now, allow me to confess that I didn’t know what I was getting into.  At 5 pm on Thursday, Fitz informed me that I had VIP concert tickets to Flashback at the Savannah Civic Center later that evening.  Not one to turn down a free music event – even on my four year anniversary (!) – I quizzically prepared for my evening assignment.  But what was Flashback?  What do you wear to a concert event throwback to the 60s and 70s?

What I discovered about the event – and the reason why I was so graciously invited – is that it is a nearly 50-date national arena tour produced by Mystic Music Enterprises (MME).  MME is a local company that our good friends at Ariel Savannah Angel Partners (ASAP) have heavily invested in.  ASAP is a network of angel investors who work together to review, analyze and invest in early-stage high-growth potential companies – like MME.  Not only does MME (with the help of ASAP) do Savannahians the courtesy of bringing a major musical act to town, but they have hired and utilized several of our local service providers to assist the operations of the company.  Their mission is to technologically enhance “30 of the best classic rock songs ever recorded” with “richer sounds, intelligent lighting, video animations and special effects.”  Not to mention that they have a great website (plus they’re on MySpace).  And they’re leaving praise in their wake.

According to a recent news article:

Inspired partly by Paul O’Neill’s Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which features a full rock band, a string section, multiple vocalists and a laser/light show, Flashback boasts 14 musicians and singers, along with an 11-piece string and horn section. The concert’s approximately 30-song set features such classics as Hendrix’s “Purple Haze,” Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” Pink Floyd’s “Money,” and the Doors’ “Light My Fire.”

But let’s be honest, I still had no idea what I was getting myself into.  Will and I entered the Civic Center as strangers unaware.  We came out as veteran classic rockers, having befriended all of our VIP neighbors and made the acquaintance of Chuck Negron, lead singer of Three Dog Night.  Meeting the be-leathered star was especially funny because, although I am very familiar with the many hits of Three Dog Night, I had no idea who the well-advertised Chuck Negron was.  Flashback Experience to Summer: “consider yourself schooled.”

The night started out slow and lighthearted, with Elizabeth Egan (complete with 5-octave vocal range) belting out Flashback’s opening number “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)”, followed up with a The Doors set by Shaun Williamson and a Janis Joplin routine covered by lead vocalist Katrina Chester, of off-Broadway’s Love, Janis.  For me, the highlight of the first set was Chester’s rendition of Joplin’s famed “Mercedes Benz,” where I couldn’t help wondering how many of the audience’s once counter-culture, struggling hippies are now pushing 60 and proud owners of a Benz themselves.  But, damn is that a good song.  Truth be known, I’d be happy with that “night on the town.”

Complete with footage from the original Woodstock, a full orchestra ensemble, hippie dancers and laser light show, Flashback brought the roof down – rocking to Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Steppenwolf and Eric Clapton.  On “Come on Baby, Light my Fire” and “Stand Next to Your Fire” they even singed us with pyrotechnics; flashes of fire bolts emerged from the stage.  And if I thought it was all pretty entertaining, that was just the beginning for the folks dancing beside me.

“I was 20 years old when all this was popular,” said my neighbor, Mike.  “It is just like it was back then.  We all thought our music would die someday,” he continued, “but it never has.  The music is ageless.”

Ageless, indeed.  We were surrounded by folks age 50 to 70, many of who were there with their kids.  Teens and twenty-somethings bobbed with them to the beat and when the Pink Floyd set began, settled in toward the stage for a decidedly “heavier” act.  It was a fusion of generations, a seamless transition from Old to Young.  Because, in this case, Old’s still got it… and Young is all about it.  Classic Rock is a language all its own and it spoke loudly, colorfully, intently in Savannah last week.  Thanks to ASAP and MME for bringing it home.

Be sure to check out the tour dates and get your GROOVY on.

Peace out.