Bill O Writes

You pretty much know what you’re going to get when you see the lead guitarist in Groovy Afternoon — a long-haired guy wearing a fringe vest and a tie-dyed shirt.  A glance at the band’s logo — which uses two bare feet as the o-o in Groovy — confirms that it’s flashback time.

Unlike some cover bands, which focus on recent hits you’re tired of, Groovy Afternoon plays songs you never get tired of: no-dispute classics from the ’60s and ’70s. Last night’s show at Tommy Doyle’s Irish Pub in Hyannis included “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones, “Voodoo Child” by Jimi Hendrix, “Born to Be Wild” by Steppenwolf and a medley of the Who’s “Pinball Wizard” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

Lead singer Christine Mascott gets help from three band members on backing vocals, but she doesn’t need it. Merging a voice reminiscent of Janis Joplin’s with Grace Slick’s stage mannerisms, Mascott is a compelling frontwoman for the quintet. Her husband, Paul Mascott, ably recreates the guitar work of Hendrix, Pete Townshend and Jimmy Page. Tracy Ferrie, who played with Stryper,  is the most animated bass player I’ve ever seen, holding his instrument upside down on some songs and spinning in circles on another. Andrew Ianniello, a veteran of the local music scene who was one of the co-founders of 57 Heavy,  plays drums with just a notch less ferocity than Keith Moon. Rhythm guitarist Byrd helps give the band a full sound.

The band members have the confidence (or is it nerve?) and the skill to take on iconic songs and even extend the instrumental breaks on some of them. As for Christine Mascott, she’s got a classic rock voice that can handle covering songs made legendary by Roger Daltrey, John Fogerty and Lennon and McCartney. Early in last night’s third set she tore into “Ramble On,” a Led Zeppelin song that the band recently added it to its set list, with such passion that it was hard to believe she’d have anything left for the rest of the show. But she followed it up with covers of songs by CSN&Y, the Stones, the Monkees, Cream and the Guess Who.

If I have one quibble, it’s that “Ohio,” a CSN&Y song about the killing of four college students at Kent State in 1970, may be an important song of the era, but it’s a definite bummer as pub music.

The band has a bunch of gigs lined up for the summer, including some free, outdoors all-ages shows that are part of the Citizens Bank Summer Concert Series. As they said back in the day, far out!

Click here for a link to Groovy Afternoon’s web site and here for a link to the band’s Facebook page.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 16th, 2010 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Live music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.