Tuesday night brought me back to San Francisco, California. This time to The Chapel to see Moonalice once again. Moonalice was performing on the patio of The Chapel as a precursor to the screening of Questlove‘s documentary, “Summer of Soul“. Their quick but polished eight song set seemed to fly by as they played their version of psychedelic soul.
Opening with “Happy Here Now”, Moonalice is a complete throwback to the late 1960’s roots rock/soul music. Their openly positive messages are just what the world needs today, just as they were needed in the 60’s. The 82 year old Lester Chambers may seem a bit frail but, his voice is still as powerful as it was in the 60’s and you can see the love and emotion in his face as he flows through the tunes. His son, Dylan and the T Sisters provide the accompanying vocals while the rest of the band provides the rhythm.
The second song “Let’s Get Funky” brought the late 70’s funk vibe (with Lester on harmonica) while the third song “People Get Ready” revived the Sly and the Family Stone classic.
One of my favorites of theirs is “Old and Proud”. This is an audience participation song. For the chorus, they have the audience sing along, I’m old, I’m proud, I like my rock n roll loud! If this isn’t an anthem that needs to be played everywhere I don’t know what is! This, was my second favorite track of the evening.
My first favorite track was the Chambers Brothers classic, “Time Has Come Today”. In all seriousness, this is in one of my top 10 songs of all time. Getting to see it live, not once but, twice in less than a week was amazing to say the least. The iconic intro of cowbell and coo coo just sets the pace for one of the best songs ever written.
If you are looking for some new psychedelic 60’s style soul. Moonalice is going to be right up your alley. If you are going to see them live, wear your best bell bottom pants and don the love beads and you will fit right in. These folks have it going on.
Moonalice are:
Roger McNamee aka “Chubby Wombat Moonalice” – bass, guitar, vocals
Pete Sears – bass, keyboards, accordion, vocals
Barry Sless – bass, guitar, pedal steel guitar, vocals
John Molo – drums
Jason Crosby – keyboards
Lester Chambers – vocals
Dylan Chambers – vocals
Erika Tietjen – vocals
Chloe Tietjen – vocals
Rachel Tietjen – vocals
Setlist
1). Love, Peace and Happiness (spoken)
2). Happy Here Now
3). Let’s Get Funky
4). People Get Ready
5). How This World
6). Old and Proud
7). Yes We Can
8). Time Has Come Today
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Photographer of about 10 years, I have been shooting concerts for about 8 of those years. I started to get serious about concert photography about 6 or 7 years ago and now try to shoot as many as I can. I shoot mostly rock but, have done some country and big band stuff. I love music and since I am nowhere close to being a musician, this is a way I can be a small part of what, in the words of Henry Rollins, “gets me through the highs, the lows and everything in between”.
