By Paul T. Mueller
Colin Blunstone
–You could almost understand it if a band that scored its greatest hit almost 45 years ago – AFTER breaking up – decided to reform for a phone-it-in-and-cash-the-checks reunion tour. That’s been known to happen. No such worries with The Zombies, though. More than 50 years after the band started out in England, these guys are still playing for real, and their fans, old and new, are loving it.
The band, featuring original members Rod Argent (keyboards and vocals) and Colin Blunstone (lead vocals), followed up several well-received performances at South by Southwest in Austin with a March 17 show at Fitzgerald’s in Houston. The audience of several hundred, mostly standing on the open floor in front of the stage and frequently singing along, was treated to a 95-minute set that spanned the group’s history, from its ahead-of-its-time origins to its gratifyingly vital present.
Argent and Blunstone, backed by guitarist Tom Toomey and the father-and-son rhythm section of Jim Rodford on bass and Steve Rodford on drums, served up the hits that many in the crowd were no doubt expecting: “Tell Her No,” “She’s Not There” and of course the biggest of all, “Time of the Season.” They also played several other tracks from the landmark 1968 album Odessey and Oracle, including “Care of Cell 44,” “A Rose for Emily,” “I Want Her She Wants Me” and “This Will Be Our Year.”
Some newer material also got a well-deserved showcase. Several tracks from 2010’s Breathe Out, Breathe In made an appearance, including the title track, “Any Other Way” and “A Moment in Time.” Blunstone sang a couple of non-Zombies tunes – “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?,” which he recorded with Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, and “Old and Wise,” from one of his stints with the Alan Parsons Project.
To no one’s surprise, there was also an excellent, rousing rendition of “Hold Your Head Up,” the biggest hit from Argent’s solo career, featuring an extended organ part with a snippet of “The Yellow Rose of Texas” tossed in just for fun.
As many times as the band must have done these songs over the decades, they still sounded fresh, and there was no mistaking the musicians’ fondness for the material or the enthusiasm of their playing and singing. Toomey and bassist Rodford frequently contributed ethereal harmonies (and big grins) to accompany Blunstone’s delicate vocals and the grittier singing of Argent, who delighted the crowd with his borderline hammy but always endearing rock-star posturing. Blunstone, by contrast, let his singing do the talking, as it were, performing most of the time without a spotlight and at other times hanging back with closed eyes and a smile.
The main set closed with the band’s first big hit, the much-covered “She’s Not There,” which predictably turned into a happy sing-along. After a brief break, the band returned with the rocking “Just Out of Reach” and a jazzy, understated version of what Blunstone said was the first song The Zombies ever recorded, the Gershwin standard “Summertime.” On a warm evening in Houston, it made for a sweet ending to a fine performance.
The Houston show, which also featured an opening set by Canadian indie rockers Elephant Stone, was the last on the current North American leg of The Zombies’ tour. After a few months of touring the United Kingdom, the band is scheduled to return in June for several shows on the East Coast.
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