“Still as Fresh as Ever!” The Rascals LIVE! at STNJ
By Spotlight Central. Photos by Love Imagery
Lovers of ’60s music inside New Brunswick, NJ’s recently refurbished State Theatre New Jersey this Saturday, April 8, 2023 evening ready themselves for a Time Peace Tour concert performance by The Rascals featuring founding members Felix Cavaliere and Gene Cornish.
Before the show begins, we chat with several Rascals fans including Larry from Monroe Township who discloses, “I have 45s and LPs of the Rascals, so I’m sure I’ll know 90% of the songs they’ll play tonight,” to which his wife, Sandy, adds, “It’s wonderful to see them perform here at the State Theatre New Jersey. We love this venue; the renovations are really nice and the acoustics are great, too.”
Declares Joe from East Brunswick, “We’re Rascals fans! We’ve seen Felix Cavaliere several times and we also went to see all of The Rascals when they performed together on Broadway.” Notes Joe’s wife, Sue, “Felix is such a good musician; he works so hard!” to which Joe further comments, “He’s still got it, and the music still holds up.”
Lastly, we chat with Mike from Monroe Township who’s here with his grandson, Sunny. Recalls Mike, “I’ve been a fan of The Rascals since 1965 and I’ve been to 26 Rascals concerts. I have their music on vinyl, 8-track, cassettes, CDs, and now streaming.” Continuing, “Felix Cavaliere is phenomenal — he’s written so many great songs — and at age 80, he sounds as fresh as he did was when he was younger,” Mike posits, “Guys like Felix, they bring so much joy to people; I’m not sure musicians like him know how much people connect to them emotionally.”
Mike’s grandson, Sunny, 11, explains that he first heard The Rascals’ music played by his grandfather, acknowledging, “I’ve been a fan for over a year now. Their music is so classic and played with beautiful instruments — it’s so different from today’s music,” prior to concluding, “Tonight’s show is my first concert ever and I wouldn’t want to be seeing any other band for my first concert!”
The house lights dim and keyboardist Benny Harrison, bassist Jimmy Keneally, drummer Vinny Santora, guitarist Mike Severs, and a three-piece horn section take the STNJ stage along with original Rascals’ guitarist Gene Cornish. Founding member Felix Cavaliere makes his way to the stage through the audience and takes his place center stage where he invites the crowd to participate, exclaiming, “Have some fun and clap your hands!”
Opening with “Do You Feel It?” Cavaliere leads The Rascals as they energetically sing to the crowd, “Do you feel it? (You know I do)/Do you feel, baby, do you feel it? (You know I do).”
Audience members tap their toes as Cavaliere’s organ calls, horns answer, and guitars, keyboard, bass, and drums keep the rhythm flowing, eliciting cheers and applause from the crowd.
After telling audience members, “We wrote this song so everyone could feel like we did,” Cavaliere and Co. launch into a masterful rendition of The Rascals’ 1968 Top 5 hit, “It’s a Beautiful Morning.”
Cavaliere’s voice sounds strong and melodious as colorful visual images appear on the screen behind him. While he ad libs vocally over the horns and swirling keyboards, Gene Cornish’s guitar playing rounds out the ensemble’s sound which captivates the audience on this classic tune. Cornish acknowledges “Felix wrote that music!” as the crowd cheers and applauds.
After asking, “How many of you remember the Summer of Love?” Cavaliere and friends performs The Rascals’ 1967 hit, “A Girl Like You.” Crying, “Must be you that caused this feeling in me/You that fills me confidently,” Cavaliere shines on an arrangement which features trombone, sax, and trumpet solos to flashing lights and a rockin’ and rollin’ piano solo. Cornish smiles as he plays guitar, obviously enjoying The Rascals’ patented blue-eyed soul vibe.
The excitement continues on “Love is a Beautiful Thing” where Cavaliere and keyboardist Benny Harrison duet on lead vocals as groovy colors dance on the screen behind them. Images of The Rascals performing through the decades compliment the tight vocals which elicit cheers from the crowd.
Cavaliere and Cornish tell a story about their early days as musicians playing at the Choo Choo Club in Garfield, NJ where the club owner told them, ‘Make ’em dance, and if they drink up, you come back!” Here, they and the group launch into the rocker, “Come On Up,” which features Cornish and Mike Severs on guitar solos and five-part vocal harmonies which bring hoots and hollers from the audience.
Cavaliere asks the crowd, “Is it good out there?” as he launches into the organ intro to The Rascals’ 1967 chart-topper, “Groovin’.”
Right from the start, music lovers happily sing along on the song’s well-known “Groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon” lyric and Gene Cornish’s harmonica adds to the tune’s relaxed vibe causing audience members to sway their arms back and forth to the music. Mike Severs plays a twangy and sweet guitar solo before Cavaliere and the band segue into soulful cover versions of The Temptations’ “My Girl” and “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)” before smoothly segueing back into “Groovin’” to whistles, cheers, and applause.
In reminiscing about The Rascals, Cavaliere declares, “I remember when you could write a song and it didn’t piss people off!” explaining, “We wrote songs about the things people were thinking about.” Here, he, Gene, and The Rascals launch into “A Ray of Hope” where a funky groove and horns punctuate this upbeat anthem which proclaims “We’ll pray for a day when all men are free/And people can live like they’re meant to be.”
Drummer Vinny Santora’s voice is featured on The Rascals’ 1965 hit, “I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore.” Mike Severs plays a psychedelic guitar solo as stage lights flash in time to the music. With bass thumping and guitar tremolo swirling, audience members move to the rhythmic groove in their seats.
Cavaliere asks, “How many of you remember 45s?” Continuing, “The ‘B’ side sold as many copies as the ‘A’ side,” Cavaliere recalls, “One time, this guy came up to me and gave me a kiss saying, ‘You changed my life! You put my song on the other side of ‘Groovin’.” Here, he and The Rascals perform a soulful version of “Mustang Sally,” a number which went on to become a hit for Wilson Pickett. The audience sings “Ride, Sally, ride” in response to Cavaliere’s energetic vocal and then sings along as Cavaliere works in snippets of Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music,” Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1000 Dances,” and The Temptations’ “Get Ready” before deftly segueing back into “Mustang Sally.”
Music lovers applaud and Cavaliere exclaims, “We got some good singers here in New Jersey!” The party continues with The Rascals’ 1967 Top 20 hit, “I’ve Been Lonely Too Long,” the sound building in intensity as Cavaliere soulfully wails and plays the keys before incorporating a segment of The Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” into the musical arrangement.
The crowd cheers and Cavaliere invites bassist Jimmy Keneally to sing lead on The Young Rascals’ 1967 Top 5 hit, “How Can I Be Sure.” The performance features a dancelike musical arrangement that brings people to their feet on this nostalgic and emotional tune. Then, as shapes swirl on the screen behind him to ever-changing colored lights, Cavaliere handles the lead vocal on “It’s Wonderful” while Cornish happily accompanies him on guitar.
Vinny Santora plays a marching beat on his drums and Cavaliere thanks all the veterans in the crowd for their service before dedicating the band’s next number to the people of Ukraine. As the group launches into The Rascals’ 1968 #1 hit, “People Got to Be Free,” music lovers join in singing the song’s “All the world over, so easy to see/People everywhere just wanna be free” lyric, and Cornish and Severs play guitar counterpoint to the horns on this song of hope.
With the band still rockin’ beneath him, Cavaliere incorporates Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People,” and The Edwin Hawkins Singers’ “Oh Happy Day,” before returning to “People Got To Be Free,” which ends with flashing lights and the audience reacting with enthusiastic hoots and hollers.
Cornish exclaims, “Thank you for coming out! Our Jersey fans are the best!” before Cavaliere adds, “God bless you. We appreciate you!” and invites the audience to get up and dance on the evening’s last song. Here, people stand up and move to a roof-rockin’ rendition of The Young Rascals’ 1966 #1 hit, “Good Lovin’.” Music lovers sing along as they dance to the song’s “Good lovin’” refrain and the horns call in three-part harmony joining the cacophony of sound emanating from the stage which gets the crowd hooting, hollering, cheering, and applauding.
Cavaliere says, “Thank you, everybody” before Cornish adds, “Hey, Felix, can we do one more?”
Here, the group enters into a medley of tunes which starts off with Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour” and continues with Sly and the Family Stone’s “Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin” before concluding with a raucous version of Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven.”
The crowd stands and cheers one last time as Cornish exclaims, “Thank you so much! We love you!” and Cavaliere shakes hands with fans near the front of the stage.
As concertgoers make their way out of the STNJ auditorium, we chat with several music lovers in the house who share their thoughts on tonight’s show. Remarks Jim from Freehold, “I’ve been coming to Rascals’ concerts since the ’60s and Felix Cavaliere is so great! My favorite songs were ‘Can You Feel It’ and ‘I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore.’” Mitch from East Brunswick exclaims, “There was a lot of love in the room tonight — that was the greatest version of ‘Good Lovin’’ I’ve ever heard!”
Whereas Robert from North Haledon reveals, “I’m a long-time Rascals fan — I listened to The Rascals’ 45s as a kid, and the group still sounds fantastic,” his son, Lucas, 15, acknowledges, “This is my first time seeing The Rascals in concert. The show was great and Felix’s voice sounds amazing.” Carol from Freehold agrees, declaring, “The Rascals were great as usual. Felix will never slow down — he’s got a lot of energy!”
Lastly, we chat with Rich from Monroe Twp who recalls, “I’ve seen The Rascals many times and I love how their show constantly reinvents itself — Felix always changes things up and gets the audience involved. I’ve heard “How Can I Be Sure” for over 50 years and it still brings tears to my eyes,” before concluding, “Even after six decades, The Rascals are still as fresh as ever!”
To learn more about The Rascals, please go to felixcavalieremusic.com. For further information on upcoming shows at STNJ in New Brunswick, NJ — including Styx on May 7, LeAnn Rimes on May 20, and Tom Jones on May 22 — please click on stnj.org.
