Chad & Jeremy at Mohegan Sun

It has been nearly 18 months since we've seen C&J in concert. Last time was October of 2009, Westerly, RI. Suffice it to say, I don't think we've missed much in the interim.

Firstly, you should know that C&J do a presentation pretty much like the old MTV Storytellers show, rather than a concert, and as such it doesn't vary much, if at all, from show to show. Drop a song, add a song, but the core stories, and jokes, remain the same, so that after a few viewings, there are no surprises, and you come to expect the "adlibs" and the aged 60's references to Dean Martin and Lucille Ball, Dick Van Dyke and Batman. And, all in all, that's ok. They are indeed a product of the 60's, as their repetitive set list will amply confirm. They did produce a number of CD-R's in the early 2000's, meant to be sold on line and at concerts, which contained fine acoustic renditions of their 60's hits, as well as a handful of new songs, most of which were co-written by Jeremy and David Pierce, a Lamada award winner for gay fiction. A few of these songs were performed in concerts over the past several years, and certainly filled in the gaps between their 60's hits and the nearly 50 years since.

So, to the point. The show last night was basically a rote presentation of the same show they did at Mohegan Sun that I first saw in 2008, less several songs and minus the first time joy of seeing them live. While all of the 60's songs were evocative of a simpler time, certainly not all were chart toppers back in the day, and no doubt the polite applause afforded a few of them was more likely due to having heard them more recently in present day form than from radio play and popularity in the 60's. That is not to say that there wasn't a long line of older fans with LP's in their hands waiting to get some signatures, but the percentage of line standers to total audience was a relatively small one.

If you haven't seen them before, or within the last 10 years, do make the effort to see the show when you can. If you have seen them since 2007 or so, the show remains enjoyable, but don't expect any surprises. I should explain that a primary reason for the sameness in performances is that Jeremy spends very little time here, and hence there is very little time for rehearsal or for learning a new presentation. I imagine that modern day communications would make this more possible than it might have been a few years ago, but this seems to remain unexplored on their end, perhaps by choice.

I should also note that there have been reports, published both on their website, www.chadandjeremy.com , and their Yahoo group, about new projects, including a CD of new (or more precisely, newer) material called Zanzibar Sunset, and a live CD recorded a year ago in SC, as well as an independently produced DVD, entitled, at one point, Yesterday's Back. Repeated requests for firm information on status and/or release dates have fallen on deaf ears, so if you're interested, please do visit their web site and hound them for info as I have :).

Bottom line: go see them and support their efforts