There are a number of things that remind me I'm not as young as I used to be, some of those are reminders I could do without, others are the ones that I'm happy to have. Last night was one of the good ones!
John and I had the pleasure of attending a concert last evening at the The Egg in Albany. The band performing was Stayin Alive, A Bee Gees Tribute Band from Canada. We learned about the upcoming concert during a PBS special about the Bee Gees and jumped at the opportunity to buy tickets. John loves the Bee Gees, in fact, they rank up there with his other all-time favorite group, the Beatles. In his younger days, he'd seen the real Bee Gees in concert three times so we knew a tribute band might not quite measure up to the 'real thing'. I mean, how could they? Well, at the risk of spoiling the ending - they came pretty darn close.
The Egg is a beautiful venue for any sort of production, able to accommodate 982 people, small enough to be 'intimate' but large enough for a group of dedicated Bee Gees fans. Every seat in the house is a good seat and ours in row K center were great. The one thing about The Egg is that, except for the back row which is saved for handicapped people, patrons must walk down stairs to their seats. The access aisles are shallow stairs, not a ramp. We arrived to the show about an hour early when the doors opened and relaxed in our seats until showtime. It only took a couple minutes before we were reminded that most of tonight's patrons were people like us, the beyond middle-age generation - many of which took some time and effort to navigate the many stairs. I bet if they did a poll of how many audience members had or needed new knees or hips, the number would have been right up there (along with our ages). But what would you expect, the Bee Gees hit popularity in the late 60's - over 50 years ago - way, way back when we were all in our prime. While there were plenty of folks under 50 in attendance, the majority of us seemed to be over 60 or 70 which made the evening quite fun and probably made the crowd one that Security didn't have to work hard to manage. We seniors are a pretty harmless bunch.
Stayin Alive Canada did not disappoint. Not only did they look and dress like the Bee Gees, they sounded like them. Tony Mattina belted out Barry Gibb's falsetto almost without effort eliciting cheers from the crowd several times. Todd Sharman, Robin Gibb's counterpart, took the lead as MC and sang and danced the entire show. His dance moves took me right back to my dancing days at the Rafter's in the 70's. Joseph Janisse, Maurice's counterpart played keyboard and did vocals. The Bee Gees have quite a catalogue of hits and during the 90 plus minute show, the band covered most of the big ones. The crowd really came alive during 'More Than a Woman' and, of course, all the Saturday Night Fever songs. It didn't matter that we were not 20-somethings anymore, all that mattered was that the music last night touched us in a place deep within our souls, deep within our memory banks. What mattered was how those songs and the people singing them - 50 years ago and tonight, touched a nerve and stirred us to get up and move to the music and for a few minutes forget we were not young anymore and didn't have to act our age. Instead we took a trip down memory lane. We remembered our beloved Bee Gees, we mourned when they played a couple Andy Gibb songs, and we savored the days gone by and the music that filled the background of our youth. Stayin Alive didn't just play music last night. They took us back, they made us young again and for a couple hours they distracted us from the state of the world today. That's no small feat. During a brief break to accommodate a costume change, a video montage of images and music of the 70's played evoking cheers and applause from the crowd after being fairly sedate first set. That enthusiasm continued throughout the second set and by the end of the show, everyone was dancing, some in their seats.
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I'm not a big concert goer but at this point in my life when I do get out to enjoy live music, it's almost always to hear music from my youth. Why is that? I think it's because music has a way of letting us relive the old days, even the days when we didn't realize how good life was or that someday we'd one day look back on those days with melancholy and smile because now what we remember is the joy, not the disappointments or heartbreaks. Music takes us to a time we can't travel to on our own. It provides the transportation if we're willing to go for the ride. If you're not usually a concert goer, I urge you to take time to listen to the music of your younger days - even if it's not at a concert with a bunch of folks who aren't young and wild anymore, but even better if it is.
Thank you Stayin Alive Canada for a great concert, for bringing us back to our 'good 'ole days' and for a night we won't soon forget. To watch for future tour dates for Stayin Alive Canada:
https://www.stayinalivetribute.com/
and their Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/StayinAliveCanada
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