Review: Zombies rise after 30 years
Back from the dead, ’60s pop music pleases old, young
The Zombies walk again.
Vocalist Colin Blunstone and keyboardist Rod Argent, both 58, resurrected their 1960s British pop group for their first tour in 30 years, stopping at the Key Club last Friday night. But unlike many reunion tours, The Zombies’ audience was not a geriatric rockers’ convention.
The packed Key Club was full with not just everyone and their oldies-obsessed mother, but every mother’s hip twenty-something child dressed head to toe in the designer pseudo-vintage uniform of L.A. scenesters.
And indeed, when Argent took his nimble fingers to the keys and Blunstone slid his first note into the microphone, perfectly echoing that golden marriage of sound that keeps radio stations playing their singles today, it seemed as if the audience, as well as the music, had escaped any evidence of age since 1968.
The set drew largely from their 1968 release, “Odyssey and Oracle,” as well as hits from the two member’s solo careers. After warming up the crowd with a few lesser known upbeat tunes, Jim Rodford of The Kinks, who is accompanying The Zombies on tour, caught the attention of every ear in the room when he plunked out an intro bass line that’s embedded into the memory of almost anyone who’s been within 50 feet of a jukebox.
Before Blunstone even asked “What’s your name?” it was clear the room was about to be filled with the sound of chart-topper “Time of the Season.”
But the aural experience wasn’t the song’s only excitement. As Argent explained, it was one of the first times they had ever performed “Time of the Season,” as well as all the other songs off “Odyssey and Oracle.”
Although the album was a driving force in the classic British invasion, and has spread its influence across decades and genres, such as in indie-pop bands The New Pornographers and The Apples in Stereo, The Zombies immediately disbanded after its release. “Time of the Season,” wasn’t even a hit until two years after its recording, due to it being relentlessly pushed by a DJ in Boise, Idaho.
However, not every Zombies song was a hit, and to the less-than-die-hard fans, the psychedelic ballads between performances of singles may have seemed a bit like filler.
But still, Blunstone and Argent’s pop-happy energy bled from the stage, and knowing the show was not just another night on The Strip, the audience was also determined to be enthused.
Argent’s unabashed attack on the keyboard, and solos that included swinging up his foot to hit the high notes, made rock ‘n’ roll guitar shredding of today’s generation seem sadly impotent. His roots in classical and jazz piano lent an intelligence and sophisticated passion lacking from much of today’s offshoots of British psychedelia, as well as any other rock genre.
And with Blunstone’s fearless capture of high notes and complex harmonies, the classic ’60s tunes achieved an almost orchestral presence, allowing the audience a brief moment of revelation that perhaps sincere musical talent is more rocking than the dumbed-down direction of many follower groups today.
-Erin Glass



