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Click Here For A Review of The David Pack Maestro's Show

Concert review of David Pack's concert at the Go Fish restaurant 

in Ojai, CA on Saturday, January   10, 1998: 

Well, if anyone has the opportunity to catch Mr. Pack doing a solo show,  you will be tossed outta the Travellers pantheon if you do not go. Go!!! I  am still beside myself one full march of 24 hours afterwards. I actually  liked this show better than any of the current Ambrosia shows. And that's  saying something, because they ain't slouches at entertaining. David's show  pulls in at number two of my all-time favorite concerts by anybody (Right  below Bruce Cockburn's 1994 "Dart to the Heart" concert at the Hollywood  Palace.

David came onto the stage obviously disheveled after a harried trip  to get him to the show on time. But once he took his mount behind his  electric piano, it was all style & class. He even quipped about the  "progressive staging" of his concert, due to the fact that the venue didn't  quite have the stage set up for his show. So they kept putting up lighting  as David sang his first numbers.

The opening act was the Santa Barbara, CA/Aspen,  CO duo of Suzanne Paris and David James Holster  (http://www.sevensouth.com/parisholster/) who were a poignant,  charming yet weak lead-in to the pyropacknics yet to come.  Someone should tell Miss Paris that she should do well  to stick to the blues, which she carried off with somewhat  convincing angst, not quite with the world-weary panache of  Janis Joplin or Lou Ann Barton, but a respectful  whisky & cigarettes voice nonetheless. 

But my oh my when they broke into their "rendition" of the  Beatles' "In My Life", I just wanted to hide my face with its incredulous  gaping hole of a mouth. I hope for this couple's (a double duty descriptor  since they are married) sake, they harmonize better in private chambers  than they do in a public forum. Roll over John Lennon! I was astonished by  this amateurish treatment, because of the opening bluesy competence of  Paris and the musical pedigree of her hubby (Three Dog Night, The Nitty  Gritty Dirt Band, Waylon Jennings, John Denver). 

Then with mercy & grace they both surrendered the stage to our fearless  hero. David cut a wide swath through popular Ambrosia hits that were mostly  associated with his royal blue-eye-ness, other Pack-penned songs and really  way cool covers of The Who, The Beatles, The Byrds & The Everly Brothers.  Most surprising to both the audience AND the performer was his balls-out  take on "Danse With Me George (Chopin's Plea)". Dave announced it as the  first time he's tried doing this song solo. But then again he also said  later in the show that it was his first solo public performance, which this  reviewer finds hard to believe. Methinks that Sir David mispake his blond  self or my maybe my anvil fused akimbo-like with my stirrup and just heard  it all wrong. Surely Warners had him tour to support his superb solo album,  "Anywhere You Go....." But I'd like to think I WAS there for his  "coming-out" party. It was THAT special.

Back to George, where David prefaced it with the  story of Chopin's horny (by way of TB meds, to which  an audience member yelped "Where can I get some?  and David retorted it's not exactly ecstasy - Urm, Dave,  been to any raves lately??) overtures to literary squeeze  George Sand and the latter's fear of her lover-wanna-be's  early demise due to coital exertion. What a lovely thought for  a song. And David did a lovely job on the song,  aided percussively by Bruce Hornsby skin-slapper, John Molo (Dave's sole session-long stagemate) who was so  tasteful with his drumdrops & hi-hats that you could've  sworn it was Burleigh! 

The real miracle here is that David winged the entire show  (set list to follow) and Molo kept his own totally unrehearsed.   Now to do that to Beatles classics or blues standards  is one thing, but to accomplish that to  George is nigh on Herculean.

My favorite bit was when David asked his cousin, Michael Zuanich to  join him onstage for what was mysteriously termed "a family thing".  Apparently he & David have done such duets at a number of Pack-family  weddings and such like. The tersely handsome, but peppery haired older  Zuanich lept up into the stage's limelight like a pro (he's not). And much  to my amazement the kinship broke into a dead-on cover of the Everlys'  "Cathy's Clown" (my favorite of that groups hits). Close your eyes and  you'dve sworn it was Phil & Don, together again. Dave took the low road  while Michael deftly handled the sweet tenor harmonies of that song. If I  were a label mogul, I'd signed them on the spot. 

The planned highlight of the evening was  David being joined onstage by Jim Messina (Buffalo Springfield,  Poco and Loggins & Messina) (http://www.jimmessina.com). I've always fashioned myself a fan of all these groups,  but never gave Messina credit for any of their respective  sounds. To me it was always Neil Young, Richie Furay &  Kenny Loggins respectively. But when I heard Jim sing, I  cried for I knew then & there who the vocal soul of those groups were  (well at least for Poco & L&M. I still feel that the Young/Stills combo  give the Springfield their signature sound. David & Jimmy blended   nicely, I daresay maybe even nicer than Loggins & Messina.

 So did their guitar byplay (this was an all-acoustic evening, no electric  guitars in sight). The tandem lasted far too short, at that, Jim was  set to leave after 4 songs but Dave coaxed him back for two more.   Their chemistry was impressive.

When Jim left the stage, he walked by my wife  and for some unexplained reason gave her shoulder  (she & I were seated front row slightly left of center) a lovingly  gentle squeeze. She just looked at me all agog (not by star-strickeness but  by the utter sensing of Messina as a real gentle spirit and all-around nice  guy. I got this by his wizened & world-worn smile, demeanor and stage  presence). Heck I'm a gonna go out and stoke up on all the back   catalogs of Messina led efforts. I'm sold!! 

THEN, if that weren't enough!!! The audience was packed with local musical  celebs, among them Christopher Cross, Dave Mason and Jim Capaldi. I guess  Mason left early and Cross was inexplicably shy to join the stage goings-on  (invited by Go Fish owner Tom Welton, former manager of the Ventura Theatre  in Ventura, CA), but David was effectual in luring Capaldi onto the set, he  was a bit reluctant at first, clearly not wanting to usurp Molo from his  mount, but Molo would hear nothing of it.

Jim joined in on an old rockabilly chestnut, "Lucille"  and then on to stunning covers of the Fab Four's "Slow Down"  (well Larry Williams' really) and "Ticket to Ride"!!!!  Now THAT's how to cover Beatle tunes, Suzanne & friend.  But we all knew Dave had the chops from "Magical Mystery Tour", right? I was mesmerized to hear Capaldi's Welcome-to-the-Canteenesque shuffle  style of drumming in the same sonic mix as Dave's silky vox. It was  nirvana, yes even aural ambrosia! But Capaldi was able to mimic Ringo's  syncopated beats to "Ticket" perfectly. Then there was David growling  Lennon's lines from "Ticket" to perfection, kind of un-Pack like, actually.  A refreshing change of pace for him. 

Well, have I overused every superlative and cliche  known to man in this tome? Well, it WAS a superlative evening.  The only letdown I think was Pack's rendition of "Maria" from West Side  Story. He did a great version with voice-pals Michael McDonald & James  Ingram on the Pack produced tribute to Maestro Bernstein's West Side Story  a short while back, but I think David was emotionally too close to the song  (Leonard was a good friend) because his voice uncharacteristically cracked  several times throughout the fragile ballad. I guess in that way he DID  give the song some drama, if not musical perfection. 

And for the fashion conscious & ladies out there in Ambroland, Dave  donned on his specs to read the charts for his new Wynonna  song claiming he wanted to get the words right.  I've always thought David a right smartly groomed &  clothed dude (except for the long hair & beard look,  see my scan of the Go Fish flyer for reference.  I think this look a bit much, either the beard or the long  locks look real fine on him, but the combo...I don't know... But  hey who am I, Blackwell?). The glasses gave him a cute   (the wife's word), scholarly (my word) look. 

Set list: 

1 - "You're the Only Woman (You & I)" 

2 - cover of The Who's "Pinball Wizard" 

3 - cover of The Byrds' "I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better" 

4 - cover of Wynonna's "The Wild Unknown" (new Pack-penned song for the  Judd's new CD, "The Other Side)

5 - cover of Bernstein's "Maria" 

6 - "Danse With Me George (Chopin's Plea)" 

7 - cover of Jack Wagner's "All I Need" (the #1 hit Dave wrote for the winsome soap star ) 

8 - cover of The Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown" 

9 - cover of Michael McDonald's "Our Love" (McDonald/Pack penned tune from McDonald's "No Looking Back" CD)  

10 - "How Much I Feel" 

11 - cover of Buffalo Springfield's "Child's Claim to Fame" 

12 - cover of Buffalo Springfield's "Kind Woman" 

13 - cover of Loggins & Messina's "Your Mama Don't Dance" 

14 - Jim Messina's "Black-Tie Cowboy" ? 

15 - cover of Poco's "You Better Think Twice" 

16 - "Hey Little Missy" (new Pack/Messina song) 

17 - "Biggest Part of Me" 

18 - "Holdin' On To Yesterday" 

19 - cover of The Everly Brothers' Lucille" 

20 - cover of The Beatles' (Larry Williams wrote it) "Slow Down" 

21 - cover of The Beatles' "Ticket to Ride" 

22 - cover of the Rolling Stones' "Let it Bleed" 

 

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