Many attendees got stuck in line waiting to purchase tickets. Blogfinger photo. 08/31/19 ©
By Paul Goldfinger
The CMA decided to add a Doo-Wop concert to their summer schedule to avoid seeming totally religious in their Saturday night GA programming.
The crowd seemed to enjoy the show, and the mood inside and outside seemed festive, but the sound was too loud and distorted for my taste. And floodlights kept circling and shining into my eyes.
The same backup band that played for all the groups in the show provided a certain sameness to the music.
One group had an 80 year old man singing love songs, and he called a woman to the stage to give him a kiss—-and she did. Gross!
If the CMA plans more Saturday summer secular shows for 2020, they might reconsider the doo wops and follow through with their promise to bring a new audio system into the Great Auditorium. They might learn something from the Count Basie Theater (Red Bank) and the Paramount Theater (Asbury)
But let’s have a round of applause for the CMA who may be going back to more diverse programming in the Grove.
And if you want to hear what a fine Doo Wop era song sounds like, here’s Dion with a classic: