I saw them in an old movie theater outside of Philly between Odessey tours so they basically played whatever they liked and I was blown away. The harmonies were unbelievably tight and Blunstone's voice hasn't aged a day!
― DavidLeeRoth, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 14:12 (seven years ago) link
Saw them last week and the Odessey set was ace. The first set was ... kind of embarrassing. The two or three or four Zombies hits they played sounded good, the new blues-rock boilerplate they played was embarrassing, and "Hold Your Head Up" remains one of my least favorite songs of all time. There were times I'd be driving around as a kid listening to classic rock radio, and when the song came on I'd keep changing the channel and coming back, always surprised this epic slog was still going. The crowd here was soooooooo not into it, but I suppose humored Rod.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 15:54 (seven years ago) link
'Hold Your Head Up' is a great song and Odessey and Oracle is better than Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
― ...so music and chicken have become intertwined (Turrican), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 17:28 (seven years ago) link
I agree wholeheartedly with the second part of that.
― JRN, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 17:31 (seven years ago) link
josh, i think the first set was really hampered by the guitarist's unwillingness to play the earlier mod tunes in that mid-'60s style. his tone was just super lame rock guitar guy (as were the solos). thank god that argent et al. seemed to have insisted that his tone for "odyssey" had to more or less mirror the lp. obv. stuff like "she's not there" can easily be ruined by being overblown (see: santana).
first avenue crowd was clearly in the mood to humor the band (or maybe they genuinely were into it, i don't know), applaud loudly at the new songs, and sing along with "hold your head up" (a song i don't like at all). looking around, the feel was kind of like a state fair vibe. lots of mom / daughter, dad / son combos.
colin's big smile and his hand gestures were more or less identical to this performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtyROCysfN0
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 18:11 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, guitarist's tone was the worst. The ugly PRS was a red flag. I guess he used to be in a Santana tribute band?
Anyway. O&O could not have been performed more faithfully.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:01 (seven years ago) link
I consider myself a fan and have Zombie Heaven and Odyssey and I have no idea what this "Hold Your Head Up" song you guys are talking about is. weird.
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:03 (seven years ago) link
not going to post the video in this thread, but it's been a classic rock radio staple for decades, you've certainly heard it. it's not a zombies song but white/argent wrote it
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:15 (seven years ago) link
Interestingly, at the show I saw, Argent prefaced the song by saying "a lot of people think I wrote this, but it was actually Chris White". They are both officially credited, though.
― JRN, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:16 (seven years ago) link
yeah that was cool. i also lol'd when rod said something like, "i've been performing this song for a number of years. for some reason, people seem to think the lyrics are 'hold your head up, woah!' actually the lyrics are 'hold your head up, WOMAN.' so, if you're going to sing along -- and we really hope you do -- for god's sake, get it right."
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:20 (seven years ago) link
Verbatim here, and probably everywhere, iirc, since they've been doing the same exact setlist for a couple of years.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:22 (seven years ago) link
Man, that reminds me--Rod Argent is 71, and still shredding on the keyboards, while playing just about the whole show standing up. That was something to see.
― JRN, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:23 (seven years ago) link
Do keyboard players tend to lose dexterity as they age? I would imagine so, and maybe Argent has, but I couldn't tell.
― JRN, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:24 (seven years ago) link
Aside: Great article from last year about the group that toured the US as the Zombies to cash in on their success. Included 2/3 of ZZ Top!
https://www.buzzfeed.com/danielralston/the-true-story-of-the-fake-zombies-the-strangest-con-in-rock?utm_term=.it8GBR9V9b#.uvYAWMYeYq
― andrew m., Wednesday, 19 April 2017 19:26 (seven years ago) link
which, as the article explains (though i've read this elsewhere on some zombies fan site), led the zombies to record their great lost album, unreleased until 2012 i think.
anybody have an opinion on "rip" ? it's one of those things (like the vu quine tapes) that i keep thinking i'll buy but never do.
― budo jeru, Thursday, 20 April 2017 01:49 (seven years ago) link
thanks for that youtube clip upthread. i've always loved that song and that 'era' of the zombies but hadn't seen that video before. plus, i never realized what a tall drink of water blunstone used to be.
― dynamicinterface, Thursday, 20 April 2017 02:34 (seven years ago) link
just came back from seeing the Zombies at the Grammy Museum, in a small theater there. It was about an hour and forty minutes, the first hour being an interview with Colin, Rod, Chris, and Hugh, and the remainder being a set of Zombie songs (including a pair of new ones, which I thought were a cut below but performed with a lot of joy that was infectious.) This set was just Rod on piano and Colin singing, which was remarkable. He can still belt it out at 71. They played about ten songs, i think. Such legends.
― nomar, Friday, 28 April 2017 06:08 (seven years ago) link
wow
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 29 April 2017 03:24 (seven years ago) link
i did not know that...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usvuOs7o944
― scott seward, Friday, 3 November 2017 18:15 (six years ago) link
would have thought all the ilx chillwavers would have hepped me to this fact. i have been playing old prefab a TON recently.
holy shit, that's really good. not a reimagination as much as a perfect match.
― drejelire, Friday, 3 November 2017 18:21 (six years ago) link
Picked up Time of The Zombies, a double LP comp Epic put together in the '70s. The second side is a bunch of stuff slated for RIP (post O & O sessions w/Argent & White), and almost all new to me. It's like The Left Banke if they'd been grownups.
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 27 September 2020 18:43 (three years ago) link
Sounds tempting
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 27 September 2020 19:03 (three years ago) link
Can’t check now but I think all of that is on the Zombie Heaven box
― rob, Sunday, 27 September 2020 19:08 (three years ago) link
Zombie Heaven has everything from the '60s. RIP itself finally came out in the 2000s.
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 27 September 2020 19:27 (three years ago) link
Time of the Zombies is so great, plus you get all of O&O in it
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 27 September 2020 19:43 (three years ago) link
I thought Heaven had a bunch of post O&O stuff on it and comparing track lists on discogs it sure she seems like all of Time is on Heaven but maybe I’m misunderstanding you
― rob, Sunday, 27 September 2020 19:48 (three years ago) link
Bad phrasing on my part. Zombie Heaven is their complete recordings (all of which were made in the '60s) RIP was later broken off as its own individual release a few years later.
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 27 September 2020 20:09 (three years ago) link
...and apparently a bundle of recordings not included in the box were released as Into The Afterlife in 2007.
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 27 September 2020 20:28 (three years ago) link