That would be the Thousand Oaks library.\u00c2\u00a0 Where Renee Bodie has expanded her house concert series.<\/p>\n
Can’t say that I’m in the loop, but Renee tracked me down.\u00c2\u00a0 Did I want to see the Refugees?<\/p>\n
When I land on that desert island, I’m taking along Wendy Waldman on my iPod.\u00c2\u00a0 Just listening to "Spring Is Here" makes me feel how great it is to be alive.\u00c2\u00a0 But this isn’t a solo gig.\u00c2\u00a0 The Refugees are a three piece band.\u00c2\u00a0 Made up of Ms. Waldman, Cindy Bullens and Deborah Holland.<\/p>\n I’ve got Cindy’s solo album.\u00c2\u00a0 The one released on UA just before the company was merged out of existence.\u00c2\u00a0 As for Ms. Holland…she was in that bizarre concoction known as Animal Logic, the supergroup with Stewart Copeland, Stanley Clarke and…her.\u00c2\u00a0 With that catchy track that got MTV airplay but didn’t launch the band into the stratosphere known as "There’s A Spy (In The House Of Love)".<\/p>\n Thousand Oaks is really far away.\u00c2\u00a0 A different county, a different area code.\u00c2\u00a0 I think it exists because of home values.\u00c2\u00a0 As in you could buy one there during the first real estate boom, back in the seventies.\u00c2\u00a0 And now it’s grown, to include the foreign car dealerships, a branch of Mastro’s Steakhouse…\u00c2\u00a0 There’s just about everything you need, you never have to go into the city again.\u00c2\u00a0 Which you may not, with the traffic being so damn bad.\u00c2\u00a0 And, a state of the art library.<\/p>\n Despite book repositories cutting their hours and their inventory, somehow this giant edifice was built in the middle of nowhere.\u00c2\u00a0 Could it be taxpayer money, or independent fund-raising?\u00c2\u00a0 Who knows?\u00c2\u00a0 But I was shocked that they purchased a high end sound rig for their community room, to hold concerts like this.<\/p>\n And those in attendance weren’t bitching about TicketMaster fees.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s not their concern, getting in to see Radiohead at the Bowl. They’re older, more community-oriented, and they just don’t want the hassle.\u00c2\u00a0 Point is, this concert took place OFF THE GRID!<\/p>\n But now, almost everything is off the grid.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s hard to get critical mass.\u00c2\u00a0 The power is in the niche.\u00c2\u00a0 Assuming you’ve got something special and can grow your niche.<\/p>\n And the Refugees have something special.<\/p>\n They can perform those harmonies that Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young could not nail at Woodstock.\u00c2\u00a0 They can pick their guitars.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, Deborah even played an accordion, Cindy a mandolin.\u00c2\u00a0 And the material resonates, but what is even more impressive is the PRESENTATION!<\/p>\n Renee introduced them as post-menopausal.\u00c2\u00a0 Cindy took offense.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s what we are, middle-aged.\u00c2\u00a0 Music rocked our world, drove the culture.\u00c2\u00a0 But we’ve seen the Stones and the Moody Blues, we no longer get excited about the classic rock tours.\u00c2\u00a0 We still love music, but we just don’t know where to go for it.\u00c2\u00a0 No one cares about us.<\/p>\n Looked like Starbucks did for a minute.\u00c2\u00a0 But they blew their trusted filter status by overloading us with mediocre product.\u00c2\u00a0 Where do we go to get turned on to new acts?<\/p>\n Not NPR, even though we’re addicted.\u00c2\u00a0 You see, NPR still worries about hip.\u00c2\u00a0 And we’re not hip.\u00c2\u00a0 We wear relaxed fit jeans, some of us get plastic surgery to look young, but we’re not.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re over the hill.\u00c2\u00a0 But still alive.\u00c2\u00a0 And despite having cash galore, no one cares about us.<\/p>\n And that’s what the Refugees talk about.\u00c2\u00a0 Us.\u00c2\u00a0 What it’s like to be our age and go on the road and try to rebuild a career when you never had stardom to begin with.<\/p>\n Wendy told her daughter’s kids that she can’t babysit anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 GRANNY’S ON THE ROAD!<\/p>\n The old rock stars bitch about the travel.\u00c2\u00a0 But it seemed these women were having a ball.\u00c2\u00a0 An endless pajama party.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, they were reliving their youth.\u00c2\u00a0 And they LOVED IT!<\/p>\n Wendy had written hits for Vanessa Williams and the Dirt Band, but now she focuses on producing.<\/p>\n Cindy has been criss-crossing the nation telling the story of the death of her daughter.<\/p>\n And Deborah…\u00c2\u00a0 She realized the window on stardom had closed and she got her Master’s and started teaching at Cal State.<\/p>\n But then Wendy called.\u00c2\u00a0 She implored Deborah to come down to Kulak’s and play live.\u00c2\u00a0 Needing another element, Wendy tracked down Cindy in Maine, who told her she was only in if it was gonna be fun.<\/p>\n And it is.<\/p>\n They play Wendy’s "Save The Best For Last".\u00c2\u00a0 Deborah does "There’s A Spy (In The House Of Love)".\u00c2\u00a0 Cindy demonstrates the pipes that backed up Elton John for so long.\u00c2\u00a0 And they talk.\u00c2\u00a0 How they want to be on the cover of AARP magazine.<\/p>\n They’re not kidding.\u00c2\u00a0 They figure if they mention it at enough gigs, someone in the audience will have a connection.\u00c2\u00a0 And, if they do, they’ll break through.<\/p>\n There’s a circuit.\u00c2\u00a0 It just hasn’t been developed yet.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s got nothing to do with radio and everything to do with live performance.\u00c2\u00a0 Akin to the condo circuit for comedians down in Florida.\u00c2\u00a0 We want to see live music, we want to be up close, we want to be treated right, and we don’t want to be ripped off.<\/p>\n And at $20 a head, this show was no rip-off.<\/p>\n And the STORIES!\u00c2\u00a0 These aren’t stars yelping HELLO CLEVELAND!\u00c2\u00a0 Deborah sings a song about her kid nagging her, he wants to give up the violin.\u00c2\u00a0 I remember telling my parents I wanted to quit piano lessons.\u00c2\u00a0 Our parents wanted us to have it better than they did, they wanted to give us opportunities, they didn’t want to let us down.\u00c2\u00a0 And now we train our kids in the same way.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s all we know.<\/p>\n But today’s kids have so many distractions.<\/p>\n All we had was music.\u00c2\u00a0 And music was enough.\u00c2\u00a0 We’d lie on the floor in front of the record player, spinning our 45s, then our albums.\u00c2\u00a0 We quoted song lyrics as we passed through the stages of life.\u00c2\u00a0 And then, suddenly, we no longer knew what to listen to and felt it would be more fun to stay home than go out.<\/p>\n But it’s not.\u00c2\u00a0 The highlight of a baby boomer’s life could be going to see the Refugees.\u00c2\u00a0 You see we love music, and when someone respects us and speaks to us on our level, we REVEL!<\/p>\n I reveled in the Refugees’ performance Saturday night.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t expect to hear their music on Top Forty radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t expect them to break through to the top of the iTunes chart.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a stealth campaign.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like the underground bands of yore.\u00c2\u00a0 You had to hear about it from your buddy, you didn’t care who else knew, before the era when movies were rated based on their gross, we were only concerned with quality. What resonated.<\/p>\n It’s a long hard slough for the Refugees.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re perfect for "The View", great for morning TV.\u00c2\u00a0 But to get those outlets to call, you’ve got to pay your dues.<\/p>\n But the Refugees are committed.\u00c2\u00a0 As Wendy said, they’re taking the music back.<\/p>\n It’s about time someone did.<\/p>\n
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\n Wendy never broke through, but she’s a star in my book.\u00c2\u00a0 So, of course, I said I’d go.<\/p>\n\n