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Neo-opsis Review
The Authentics: Concert
March 18, 2016
Ray Ayotte, Skip Prest , Al Harlow, Rocket Norton, Ab Bryant, and John Hall.
I
had the privilege of seeing The Authentics perform
before they were The Authentics. Several musical performers
attended Rocket Norton’s 65th birthday party, and many various groups of them
took turns performing on the stage at the party. For several of the songs the
group on stage was Ray Ayotte, Ab Bryant, John Hall, Al Harlow, Rocket Norton,
and Skip Prest. They sounded great together, which is
likely why they decided to form and perform as the group The Authentics. See photo below.
Left to right John Hall, Skip Prest, Rocket
Norton, Al Harlow, Ray Ayotte (behind Al), Ab Bryant.
(July, 2015)
The Authentics:
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Ray
Ayotte (drums). Famed drum maker and percussionist. (Ayotte Drums.) |
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Ab
Bryant (bass, lead vocals, back-up
vocals): Jet, Prism, Chilliwack, Headpins. |
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John Hall (piano, lead vocals, back-up vocals): Prism, Seeds of Time, Jet, The Rocket Norton Band, HUNN. |
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Al Harlow (lead vocals, back-up vocals, guitar, slide guitar): Prism, Seeds of Time, Harlow, Jet, The Burner Boys, Segment 41. |
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Rocket
Norton (drums, guitar, vocals): Seeds of Time, Prism, The Rocket Norton Band, HUNN. |
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Skip
Prest (lead
vocals, back-up vocals, guitar). Sweeney Todd. |
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The concert was at Cottage Bistro, 4468 Main
Street, Vancouver. My sister-in-law and I shared an order of fish and chips and
a Greek salad. Both were good and added to the enjoyment of the evening. The
venue was packed.
With both Rocket Norton and Ray Ayotte
playing full drum sets, so I thought it would be cool to hear The Authentics play the Ventures’ “Theme from Hawaii 50.” Maybe at a future concert.
The Authentics
played Barbara
Lynn Ozen’s song “You Got a Good Thing Going,” with a heavy rhythm and blues feel. Several Authentics
members played this song back then they were The Seeds of Time. The photo below
of them playing “You Got a Good Thing Going,” isn’t from the Cottage Bistro
concert, but is also from Rocket Norton’s birthday.
Left to right John Hall, Skip Prest, Rocket
Norton, Ray Ayotte Al Harlow, Rocket Norton (behind Al), and Ab Bryant. (July,
2015)
Jim Vallance
(writing as Rodney Higgs) wrote “You’re Like the Wind,” for Prism. The Authentics
did an instrumental version, starting with John Hall doing the main melody of
the song on the keyboard, followed by Al doing the melody on a slide guitar,
then the two of them playing back and forth with the melody. The bass and
percussion background was subtle and helped carry the song well.
Dual guitars gave a cool sound to the
Prism song “Mirror Man” (written by
John Hall and Lindsay Mitchell). As is common at Prism concerts, Al Harlow did a talk box / guitar solo
for part of the song. Rocket Norton followed up with a drum solo.
Al Harlow did a down & dirty slide
guitar solo, leading into a similarly down and dirty version group performance
of the song “Supergirl,”
which he wrote during the Seeds of Time era. Al commonly does a slide guitar
solo at Prism concerts. The solo at this concert had a similar sound and style
to what he does with Prism, but he managed something unique for this one.
John Hall seemed quite into the song “Little Joe from Chicago,” (written by Mary Lou
Williams and Henry Wells) as
he sang lead and played his keyboard.
The Prism song “Take Me to the Kaptin,” (by Jim Vallance), is a song that can sound great in a number of performance
styles. The original studio recording is amazing. The ‘garage band’ sound
version done before the studio release version (available on Jim Vallance’s web site) is good, if a bit raw. Kaptin sounds great hammered out live in a large venue. The
Authentics showed it’s also great when played not
quite as intensely to a smaller live audience.
The concert finished off with another
Jim Vallance / Prism song, “Spaceship Superstar.” John pulled off a great version of the
synthesizer solo that finishes off the song. “Take Me to the Kaptin” and “Spaceship Superstar” were originally a single
song, but Jim Vallance split it into two songs before
Prism released them.
Different members of The Authentics took turns on lead vocals and doing solos, and
everyone gave each other their time to shine. The team clearly enjoyed doing
the performance (see the photo below), and clearly enjoyed working together. I
hope they manage to play together again. Whether they do or not, I felt quite
privileged at the opportunity to see this combination of talent play.
(I found out after writing this that
The Authentics will be playing in North Vancouver on
May, 5, 2017. This site has information on the May 5 concert: http://www.fnlnorthvan.com/winter-2015-guest-performers/
Check out The Authentic’s home page listed below for
information on other possible dates.)
Review by Karl Johanson
Ethical Disclosure: Karl Johanson is friends with
Al Harlow, but he was a fan of Prism for roughly 30 years before meeting him.
Update January 4, 2020. A 6 song EP
by The Authentics is available at http://authentics.ca/
Links:
Home Page: http://authentics.ca/
The Authentics on FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Authentics-Vancouver-227637490913044/
Prism’s web site, including touring info: www.prism.ca
Rocket Norton Theatrical’s web site: www.rocketnorton.com
John Hall: https://ca.linkedin.com/pub/john-hall/88/b59/a0b
Headpin’s web site (Ab Bryant): http://www.headpins.net/home.html
Sweeney Todd (Skip Prest) http://www.canadianbands.com/Sweeney%20Todd.html
Prism / Jet / Seed of Time Concert: http://www.neo-opsis.ca/PrismReunion.htm
“I Here a Voice from Long Ago” Interview with All Harlow: http://neo-opsis.ca/prism.pdf
Prism “Take Me to the Kaptin” Vancouver,
BC 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSE1Z-3Ay-8
Prism “Mirror Man” Vancouver, BC 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25Mz2m0KhJk
Prism “Take Me to the Kaptin” Sooke, BC, 2007: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiP1uZMmgQE
“See The Authentics at
Cottage Bistro on Friday, March 18th, 2016” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTEi7ET-OHI
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