Summer of Love Heats Up Count Basie Theatre

When Glen Burtnik took to the County Basie Theatre stage Saturday night, he told the audience he hoped they had brought their sleeping bags. His Summer of Love concert thrilled a near-capacity crowd – when we say near-capacity, we’re talking just a few seats shy of a sellout – for more than three and a half hours with a collection of songs promising to celebrate the music of Woodstock.

The concert – an annual affair – wasn’t just a cover performance of the late 1960’s rock staples you’ll likely find watered-down and bastardized in television commercials, but rather a reenactment, a tribute to a musical moment that helped define a generation.

With more costume changes than Lady Gaga, Burtnik, who’s best known as a former member of the band Styx, led a cast of more than 30 performers – sometimes more than 20 of them appearing on stage at the same time – through a collection of period tracks that highlighted rock, soul, fusion, and folk.

Individual singers and musicians, handpicked by Burtnik for specific songs and musical genres, brought both authenticity and new twists, avoiding performances that sounded like radio replays in favor of something a little more in tune with the spirit of the evening.

An early highlight of the concert was the performance of Christine Martucci, a Jersey shore-native who hopped on stage wearing a tie-dye top and an assortment of colorful feather boas. But, though eye-catching as it was, her outfit wasn’t the highlight, but rather her heartfelt and exuberant rendition of the song made popular by Janis Joplin, Piece of My Heart.

A large video projection screen behind the band displaying photos and clips from the era – sometimes silly, including pictures of famous celebrity couples like Sonny and Cher, and The Captain and Tennille during the performance of The Turtles’ So Happy Together – helped provide context to a number of the songs during the concert.

The video and lights and a ubiquitous fog hanging over the audience – this one created by smoke machines – helped set the tone, but it was the music, it’s always the music, that brought the audience to its feet several times.

Other highlights included Long Branch native and local blues star Tara Elliott who performed Somebody to Love, and Mary McCrink, who, alone on a stark stage under a spotlight, played guitar and sang a haunting version of Joni Mitchell’s ode to an event she had not been party too, Woodstock.

The performance of the night, when all things are considered, will surely be credited to Anthony D’Amato. The Asbury Park native, looking the part with brown, pinstriped-bellbottoms and no shoes, gave an unforgettable version of A Little Help From My Friends, evoking a crowd of nearly 1,400 to raise their hands and rise together with a performance that could have brought the house down, if only there weren’t two more hours to go.

            If you missed out on the Summer of Love in winter this time around, don’t worry, it, along with dozens of performers will likely be back next year.