A colorful Glen Burtnik, illuminated by Pig Light Show, brings the fifth edition of the Summer of Love Concert to the Basie this Saturday. (Photo by John Cavanaugh)
“Here’s to all you crazy children of the ’60’s who have turned or who are about to turn 60!” says the advance for the Summer of Love concert, the fifth anniversary celebration of which takes to the stage of the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank this Saturday. “Let’s drop some ANTACID and go!”
Starring the new Hardest Working Man in Shore Business, Glen Burtnik, Summer of Love V offers up “a tribute to the music of the Woodstock Generation, performed note for note and absolutely live” by a precision unit of veteran Shorecat musicians.
Produced by locally legendary music promoter Tony Pallagrosi and field-marshaled by Burtnik, the longtime Beatlemania cast member, hitmaking songwriter and Styx guitarist whose Red Bank appearances in recent seasons have included spot-on Beatles salutes, all-star Xmas Xtravaganzas and more, the production also features an iconic presence from countless concerts at Bill Graham’s celebrated Fillmore East.
For the 8 pm Lovefest, bandleader Burtnik (who previewed his newest band project, The Weeklings, at last Sunday’s St. Patrick’s Parade in his adopted city of Asbury Park) will be rolling the calendar back to 1967 — the original Summer of Love, as they called it, and the year that most critics agreed was a high watermark in the history of the rock album. It was a year keynoted by the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper, and spotlighting milestone releases by the Stones (Their Satanic Majesties Request), Cream (Disraeli Gears), the Beach Boys and the Who, as well as the debuts of Jimi Hendrix, the Doors and Jefferson Airplane (to say nothing of the Velvet Underground and the Grateful Dead).
All of the aforementioned will be represented at Saturday’s 2.5-hour concert — along with other late-’60s favorites from the likes of Santana, the Rascals, Procol Harum, Creedence, Melanie, Richie Havens, Janis Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, Joe Cocker, and CSN&Y — with “special musical guests and video surprises” also making the scene.
Oh, and as for that Fillmore veteran — it’s the kaleidoscopically trippy “Pig Light Show” whose ancestors backed up many a classic rock act at that long-gone NYC venue.
Take it here for tickets ($29.50 – $75) — and take it up a notch to $99 for a VIP option that includes a post-show meet and greet.
