The David and Linda LaFlamme Band (It’s A Beautiful Day) - Marilyn’s on K, Sacramento 2/14/08

I had some light misgivings about attending this gig as I’ve heard a LaFlamme show and/or album here and there over the last few years. While I love the It’s A Beautiful Day songs the band also fills in with new tracks, solo tracks and the like, all of which hold little interest to me, so I felt like I’d be getting a mixed set at the very least. Then I chalked up how close I was to the venue, the company of Expose editor Peter Thelen and the sum fell in the black. Why the hell not?

If I’d have left after Set 1 I’d have been very happy. The band has the signature marks of playing together a while and LaFlamme appeared to be considerably inspired this gig to the point that I was getting Jerry Goodman flashbacks. While he commented on his scratchy tone, he was pretty much on fire most of the night and all the great IABD tracks benefitted from this energy, inspiring the rest of the band and delivering very powerful versions of Don & Dewey, Hot Summer Days and the like. I quickly had one of those stupid grins one gets at the best of performances.

Unsurprisingly set 2, while containing an excellent, opening Bombay Calling and the obligatory White Bird, ended up being sort of a mishmash. LaFlamme mentioned a previous tour with Jefferson Starship (necessitating a funny shot at Paul Kantner), and it was this I had in mind while the band went through the rock n roll stuff written after IABD, including one rather banal rock track which was Linda’s moment to shine. By this point in the gig I was about ready for it to end, but none of it erased the better, earlier memories of the IABD corpus.

And of course I was about the youngest person at the gig, except for the club workers and the opening act (a rather forgettable singer/songwriter trio), which made me wonder how long a nostalgic act like this can last. But for a night the Summer of Love coincided with Valentine’s Day and “it” was in the air. Definitely a band worth seeing for old hippies.