Review: The Rascals Featuring Felix Cavaliere & Gene Cornish at State Theatre New Jersey
They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 by fellow New Jerseyan Steven Van Zandt (E. Street band, Disciples of Soul) but The Rascals have been rock and roll royalty since their cover of “Good Lovin” topped the Billboard Pop chart in the spring of 1966. A milestone that quickly grabbed the attention of Ed Sullivan and The Young Rascals, their original band name, were immediately booked to perform on his show.
The Rascals’ appearance on March 20, 1966, was the first of 5 appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show through the band’s most critically acclaimed years from 1966-1968. A span that produced many additional hit songs.
Since they disbanded in the early 1970s, the band has reunited in various forms over the years. The most recent incarnation of The Rascals began in November of 2022.
As Rascals guitarist Gene Cornish recalled in my recent interview, he and vocalist/keyboardist Felix Cavaliere asked co-founding member Eddie Brigati if he was interested to join the tour. But he turned down their request. They also tried to recruit drummer Dino Daneli.
Unfortunately, Dino was dealing with health issues that prevented him from touring and sadly passed away on December 15, 2022. Gene and Felix were still set on bringing the music that touched their soul and so many others back to the live stage and they both set out on The Rascals Time Peace Tour.
Since last fall, The Rascals have performed in front of their New Jersey home crowd a few times. This past Saturday night, The Rascals performed at State Theater in New Brunswick.
What was once a 4 piece band is now an ensemble of 6 including a 3 piece horn section. As soon as the lights when down in the theater, the almost sold-out anxious crowd, was presented not only with a sonic flashback to the past, but a visual one as well. As the band played their hits including “A Beautiful Morning”, A Girl Like You”, “I’ve Been Lonely Too Long”, “How Can I Be Sure”, “People Got To Be Free”, Groovin” and Good Lovin” among others, the big screen backdrop projected images of the band’s heyday performances.
Images of Felix, Gene, Eddie, and Dino proudly flexing their younger muscles with those hit after hit, as the newer versions of sound and vision were duplicated live on stage. What was really neat was how they created medleys of music, intertwining other songs of the time within their hits, increasing the journey of your musical imagination.
Staying true to form as a frontman, Cavaliere bounced around the stage offering the fans energy to compliment the music. I would have hoped he stayed true to form as the singer. His stage movements distracted me from truly embracing the songs. As with any song, the history of their success always has a story.
I did enjoy the back-and-forth between Felix and Gene Cornish as they told tales and reminisced about the songs’ accountings. One story, in particular, was when Mack Rice who wrote “Mustang Sally” thanked Cavaliere for putting The Rascals cover of his song as the B-side of “Good Lovin”.
Due to the success of Good Lovin on the A-side, the way royalties were paid by records sold, the B-side writer was paid equally.
If you missed the show, The Rascals have 4 more dates on their 2023 tour. See the complete schedule here…
