Yes, tonight’s concert was a blast from the past. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons played at the Family Arena in St. Charles. Ted and I didn’t know if Frankie had a decent voice left, but even though he’s 83, he still sings pretty well–just in a slightly lower key. The crowd cheered when he did his famous falsetto notes! (Maybe because we love them; maybe because we were surprised he still has that much voice range. Who cares?–He did it!) The Four Seasons are apparently interchangeable over time and were much younger (40s?).
The show was scheduled for 8:00 pm, but didn’t start until 8:15. I heard the man behind me tell his wife that they were probably giving Frankie oxygen to get him ready to perform. (Yes, we old folks have a sense of humor about age.) The average age of the audience was probably 65-70. The sign at the concession stand said “We ID everyone.” Ted and I wondered if there was any point in that, given the audience’s age, but then we saw about a half dozen kids whose parents (or grandparents) probably dragged them to the concert. They brought the average age down a few minutes.
Frankie might be old, but he didn’t get fat. He has a good band too. Tonight, it included two local musicians on the trombone and the trumpet (the two on the left in the back). The four guys in suits on the left are the Four Seasons. (Duh!)
Frankie still sings well enough to do solos. In fact, he and the Four Seasons just released a new album–“Romancing the 60s.”
When Frankie sang “Can’t Take My Eyes off of You,” the crowd broke out the cell phones and the flashlight app to do the arm wave thing. We’re baby boomers: we’re aging, but we’ll always be cool.
Frankie sang all his big hits and the crowd loved it. The Four Seasons’ moves were all choreographed–just like in the 60s. In this picture, they’re singing “Oh, What a Night.”
The finale. All good things end.
The concert was very good. Ted and I agreed the tickets were worth it, and I heard a lot of other people complimenting the performance as well. As I was looking over the crowd before the show began, it made me think of the PBS pledge week doo wop specials, but after the lights went down and you couldn’t see all the gray hair (mostly on the men, of course), you wouldn’t have guessed it was an old crowd. Party on, Baby Boomers!