Roughly six years ago I was in Connecticut and I saw a local theater which was promoting an upcoming concert which was going to feature two of the biggest Motown groups ever in rock-n-rolls history, and that was Four Tops and The Temptations. I figured, wow, what a great idea to have both iconic groups playing together like that on one night. Since it was up in Connecticut it would've been a pain to get back up there again a few days later, so I let the concert pass, even though those two groups stayed in the back of my mind that I was going to see them live one day in the future. Time and time again I would read the act(both groups together) would be playing somewhere closer in New York, but there was always something else or a lack of motivation to see it. Recently, I saw a notice online that both groups were going to be performing together at the Capital One Bank Theater in Westbury, NY, a place I've been to several times and enjoyed its intimate setting, so I made sure I wasn't going to miss them this time around.
The day of the show I bought a ticket online, and since I only needed one seat for myself, I actually ended up with a bargain price for a single seat located in a section that normally would've cost thirty dollars more had I needed a pair of seats. The theater must have had a single floater ticket they needed to get rid of, so it seems they dropped the price on it as an incentive for someone like me to pick it up. The show was scheduled for a 8:00pm start, I arrived about 6:40pm. The people who were supposed to help with parking wore baggy orange jumpsuits and had a thuggish way about them. It made me think the theater hired a few convicts out of their cells for a couple of hours to help with parking. The doors to be seated opened at 7:00pm, but was in no mood to wait and hour sitting down, so I stayed in the lobby area which has snacks and drinks available. There is a VIP section which allows access for a nicer area with a bar and lounge area, but I didn't buy tickets to the theater's VIP section. I been to this theater a few times before, twice to see Johnny Mathis and once for Peter Frampton. When I go to see a show there, I'm usually the youngest one in the audience, but I was happy this time there were at least five people younger than me attending the performance. It's probably my favorite venue as its very small and intimate whereas you can see performers way up close, even if you're in the very back row. The rotating stage is a neat feature to see performers at all angles. Plus, even though they announce photography and video taping in prohibited, most of the staff there is elderly, so either they can't see what's going on or just don't have the energy to enforce the rules.
The first group to go on, around 8:10pm, was Four Tops. Although they're considered the opening act in this case, I actually like their songs more than those of The Temptations, so to me they were the main attraction. Out of the four group members, only one of the original Tops, Abdul "Duke" Fakir, is still alive and was on stage. The other three original members have died over the years, including lead singer Levi Stubbs. So even though they're billed as Four Tops, the sound isn't quite the same as when hearing their classic songs on the radio or on the iPod, or in movies. As for the other three members, one is the son of one of the original members who died, and the other two just became part of the group over time. They all did a great job being in sync together which would give the impression they're been performing together since the 1960's. They mixed in some commentary, some playfulness with the crowd, some dance moves, and lastly were decked out in gold suits. All the vintage Four Tops hits were covered such as "Bernadette", "Reach Out I'll Be There", "It's the Same Old Song", "Baby I Need Your Loving", "Ain't No Woman Like The One I Got", "Shake Me, Wake Me(When It's Over)", "Standing on the Shadows of Love", "When She Was My Girl", "Walk Away Renee", and the grand finale "I Can't Help Myself(Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)". They also went off the menu, so to speak to, for a few solo acts, but it was these classic hits everyone enjoyed the most.
After a twenty-minute intermission, where the first time in my life I saw the line to the men's room longer than the line to the ladies' room, it was time for The Temptations to hit the stage. Like Four Tops, this version of The Temptations only included one original member from back in the 1960's, and that was Otis Williams. There was also Ron Tyson, who joined the group in 1983, but overall the sound is different from what people are used to, especially without former lead singer David Ruffin that gave them a big part of their signature sound from 1964-1968. The Temptations have gone through many makeovers and personal renovations over the years, there's about two or three other groups with former members billing themselves as The Temptations in some form or another, but with original member Otis Williams, this is as close to the real Temptations as it gets. They came out with light orange jackets and purple pants, not to be confused with the dark orange jumpsuits the parking lot attendants were wearing. Just like Four Tops, they performed all the big hits that made them Motown legends during the 1960's and early 70's such as "Get Ready", "Just My Imagination(Running Away With Me)", "I Can't Get Next To You", "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", "Ball of Confusion(That's What The World Is Today)", "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me", "Cloud Nine", "I Wish It Would Rain", the infamous "My Girl", and lastly "(I Know) I'm Losing You".
The Temptations have five members on stage, versus four for Four Tops, and go a little further in terms of synchronized dance moves, but both groups stuck to their roots with the flashy clothes and movements during the songs. It was nice to see all these classic hits performed live as these are songs that still find themselves in our everyday lives. A day might be a stretch, but its near impossible to go a week and not hear one of these hits from Four Tops or The Temptations while in a store, watching a movie, watching TV, hearing commercials, flipping through the radio, etc. For instance, "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) headlines the opening of the Vietnam part in the movie "Forrest Gump", as well as got a second life of popularity in the comedy "There's Something About Mary". The Temptations hits "My Girl" and "Get Ready"are simply all over the place, appearing in countless movies, shows, and other instances where a good tune is needed. The show ended about a few minutes after 11:00pm and everyone made the mad dash to the parking lot to get out. The parking lot has only one entrance, which seems to only be two-cars wide and goes up a hill. When nearly a thousand cars are vying for this one entrance, things get a little messy. Out of the team of prisoner parking attendants, I only saw one attempting to direct the traffic, and he was failing miserably, the rest of the team was nowhere in sight. What made it worse, someone had also parked their car near this entrance way, so lines splintered from two, to four, to sometimes six different lanes of cars fighting to get through. As the title of one of The Temptations' songs, the parking lot was a ball of confusion that took fifteen minutes to get out of, and I was one of the early people out of the theater.
Motown legends or not, there was no way Four Tops or The Temptations were leaving that place before midnight...
The day of the show I bought a ticket online, and since I only needed one seat for myself, I actually ended up with a bargain price for a single seat located in a section that normally would've cost thirty dollars more had I needed a pair of seats. The theater must have had a single floater ticket they needed to get rid of, so it seems they dropped the price on it as an incentive for someone like me to pick it up. The show was scheduled for a 8:00pm start, I arrived about 6:40pm. The people who were supposed to help with parking wore baggy orange jumpsuits and had a thuggish way about them. It made me think the theater hired a few convicts out of their cells for a couple of hours to help with parking. The doors to be seated opened at 7:00pm, but was in no mood to wait and hour sitting down, so I stayed in the lobby area which has snacks and drinks available. There is a VIP section which allows access for a nicer area with a bar and lounge area, but I didn't buy tickets to the theater's VIP section. I been to this theater a few times before, twice to see Johnny Mathis and once for Peter Frampton. When I go to see a show there, I'm usually the youngest one in the audience, but I was happy this time there were at least five people younger than me attending the performance. It's probably my favorite venue as its very small and intimate whereas you can see performers way up close, even if you're in the very back row. The rotating stage is a neat feature to see performers at all angles. Plus, even though they announce photography and video taping in prohibited, most of the staff there is elderly, so either they can't see what's going on or just don't have the energy to enforce the rules.
The first group to go on, around 8:10pm, was Four Tops. Although they're considered the opening act in this case, I actually like their songs more than those of The Temptations, so to me they were the main attraction. Out of the four group members, only one of the original Tops, Abdul "Duke" Fakir, is still alive and was on stage. The other three original members have died over the years, including lead singer Levi Stubbs. So even though they're billed as Four Tops, the sound isn't quite the same as when hearing their classic songs on the radio or on the iPod, or in movies. As for the other three members, one is the son of one of the original members who died, and the other two just became part of the group over time. They all did a great job being in sync together which would give the impression they're been performing together since the 1960's. They mixed in some commentary, some playfulness with the crowd, some dance moves, and lastly were decked out in gold suits. All the vintage Four Tops hits were covered such as "Bernadette", "Reach Out I'll Be There", "It's the Same Old Song", "Baby I Need Your Loving", "Ain't No Woman Like The One I Got", "Shake Me, Wake Me(When It's Over)", "Standing on the Shadows of Love", "When She Was My Girl", "Walk Away Renee", and the grand finale "I Can't Help Myself(Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)". They also went off the menu, so to speak to, for a few solo acts, but it was these classic hits everyone enjoyed the most.
After a twenty-minute intermission, where the first time in my life I saw the line to the men's room longer than the line to the ladies' room, it was time for The Temptations to hit the stage. Like Four Tops, this version of The Temptations only included one original member from back in the 1960's, and that was Otis Williams. There was also Ron Tyson, who joined the group in 1983, but overall the sound is different from what people are used to, especially without former lead singer David Ruffin that gave them a big part of their signature sound from 1964-1968. The Temptations have gone through many makeovers and personal renovations over the years, there's about two or three other groups with former members billing themselves as The Temptations in some form or another, but with original member Otis Williams, this is as close to the real Temptations as it gets. They came out with light orange jackets and purple pants, not to be confused with the dark orange jumpsuits the parking lot attendants were wearing. Just like Four Tops, they performed all the big hits that made them Motown legends during the 1960's and early 70's such as "Get Ready", "Just My Imagination(Running Away With Me)", "I Can't Get Next To You", "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone", "Ball of Confusion(That's What The World Is Today)", "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me", "Cloud Nine", "I Wish It Would Rain", the infamous "My Girl", and lastly "(I Know) I'm Losing You".
The Temptations have five members on stage, versus four for Four Tops, and go a little further in terms of synchronized dance moves, but both groups stuck to their roots with the flashy clothes and movements during the songs. It was nice to see all these classic hits performed live as these are songs that still find themselves in our everyday lives. A day might be a stretch, but its near impossible to go a week and not hear one of these hits from Four Tops or The Temptations while in a store, watching a movie, watching TV, hearing commercials, flipping through the radio, etc. For instance, "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) headlines the opening of the Vietnam part in the movie "Forrest Gump", as well as got a second life of popularity in the comedy "There's Something About Mary". The Temptations hits "My Girl" and "Get Ready"are simply all over the place, appearing in countless movies, shows, and other instances where a good tune is needed. The show ended about a few minutes after 11:00pm and everyone made the mad dash to the parking lot to get out. The parking lot has only one entrance, which seems to only be two-cars wide and goes up a hill. When nearly a thousand cars are vying for this one entrance, things get a little messy. Out of the team of prisoner parking attendants, I only saw one attempting to direct the traffic, and he was failing miserably, the rest of the team was nowhere in sight. What made it worse, someone had also parked their car near this entrance way, so lines splintered from two, to four, to sometimes six different lanes of cars fighting to get through. As the title of one of The Temptations' songs, the parking lot was a ball of confusion that took fifteen minutes to get out of, and I was one of the early people out of the theater.
Motown legends or not, there was no way Four Tops or The Temptations were leaving that place before midnight...
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