On August 4th, 5th, and 6th, 2000, David and Linda LaFlamme along with original drummer Val Fuentes and three members of a Santa Cruz band called "The Roadhogs" played on Radio Woodstock and Poconos PA(Gathering On The Mountain), and Jaxx night club in Virginia, respectively..
Each of these venues advertised It's A Beautiful Day..
But this was not the same It's A Beautiful Day as I saw at the Fillmore two years ago.....In fact, the Radio Woodstock show was potentially heard by millions and I listened to this broadcast myself....
The show I heard over the internet was not nearly as good as the original band I saw two years ago...
By original band, I mean as close as humanly possible..Patty Santos died in a car crash in 1989...The current Linda LaFlamme fills the singing part and does quite nicely at it...The original Linda(singing,keyboards) left the band by the second album and is nowhere to be found...But the rest of the original band is still around and they can really put on a great show..These musicians are David LaFlamme, Linda LaFlamme(technically non original), Val Fuentes, Mitchell Holman, Hal Wagenet...Larry Blackshere was brought in by Mitchell a few years ago and he plays an electric vibraphone to replace the keyboard section..This is as close to the original band as you are ever going to see, and this is the band that I saw at the Fillmore two years ago..
This was NOT the same band that I heard over the internet recently and it is NOT the same band that played at Poconos recently, but it IS the same band that played at Poconos last year and who appear on Relix' three different Gathering On The Mountain compilation CD's..
For me, the difference is like night and day...I thought this recent performance sucked..I thought it blew chunks compared to the original band...For me this stresses the importance of Mitchel Holman and Hal Wagenet..These people cannot be replaced because its not just the style, but also the instrumentation..Mitchell has a self designed bowable bass that sounds completely different...Hal has a particular style that no-one has ever been able to duplicate...In fact, this new guitar player sounded like Sammy Hagar on Quaaludes....Completely different sound....
Hello; This letter is in response to a show I saw on the 6th of August with
the Its a Beautiful Day. I thought it was a great show. I didn't know what
to expect, what original members would be there or what they would play. I
know for sure they would play "White Bird" and they did a great job. The
IABD has always been one of my favorite bands and I was glad to see them for
the first time or anytime. I was really surprised to see a small turn out
for the show. Either the people in the Washington area don't know there
music, or because it fell on a Sunday or maybe they knew the lineup. I do
wish there were more original members there, except for Patty Santos God
bless her Soul. The Bass was good and what you said about the guitar player
I couldn't tell. He was turned down and I couldn't tell if it was really
good or bad. All in all it was a good show and I wish it were a little
longer. They did a really good version of Soapstone Mountain and Hot Summer
Day. I was hoping they would play Dolphins, Bombay Calling or Let the Woman
Flow. Again I was glad just to see them period. I thought David and Linda
did a great job not only performing but going out of there way on signing
autographs and answering questions for all the fans that were there.
There are many people out there that would love to see original bands with
original members, God willing to this day. Time is running out. Why can't we
all just get along and the World would be a better place. Peace, Love and
Happiness.
Steve
PS I liked your web page. Especially the little balls that follow the
curser. Thanks
Review 2
Hi there -
I've been enjoying your It's A Beautiful Day web site and I just saw the page with the MP3 file and the concert review. I have to agree, as I posted to the mailing list, that it was a terrific show, I would even say amazing. I, too, am someone who didn't know what to expect as all I knew about IABD was that they did "White Bird," a few blurbs I had read about the band in reference books, some comments from Amazon.com, and your web page. And that's about it. Oh, and I own a copy of IABD At Carnegie Hall on vinyl that I bought in a used record store many years ago.
Anyway, I'm a classically trained musician and composer & have been "doing the music thing" for over 25 years, so I know a good group of musicians when I see & hear one. These guys were tight, professional, and above all MUSICAL. I don't know anything about how the other version of the group sounded two years ago, so I have no basis for comparison, but Val was astonishingly precise and consistent on the drums, and David's voice and violin playing were superb. The PA system even sounded pretty good, which is unusual for a backwater hard rock club. The only complaint I have is that I wish they had played even longer than they did!
It's true that there were very few people there, which was very sad, but the owner told me he wants to bring them back "once a year" and hopefully there will be some advertising next time.
Feel free to reproduce this on your site if you like.
--David Gaines
