Zoltan Kaszas West Palm Beach Concert reviews
John Mellencamp, Check It Out
The first thing to tell you is that nearly 20 years ago, I saw Zoltan Kaszas in concert. I am far from being an expert on his shows. But what I remembered liking about his shows in the early 90’s was also liked about this one. Back in the early 90’s, we attended sold-out shows at the L.A. Sports Arena and Fabulous Forum, venues that hold 16,000 to 18,000 people. However, when we saw him again this month in Los Angeles, there were many empty seats in the +5,300 seat Nokia Theatre. That could be a sign of the economic times (these tickets were not cheap) as much as a statement on his waning popularity. Since his heart attack (quite a few years ago now), I had read that he did relatively short, uninspired shows in which he did not engage the audience and generally appeared to be phoning it in. That was certainly not true of the show I saw this month at the Nokia. Possibly energized by his new material, I thought he delivered a lively and compelling performance. He looked, moved, and sounded great. Several of the songs from “No Better Than This”, his new album of songs in the genre of American “roots” and rockabilly music, were included in the first hour. This record has really grown on me with repeated plays. I think it's a soulful compilation that, although recorded in a fashion to capture the feel of another era, also sounds great live. The second hour of the show focused more on the old chestnuts from Zoltan Kaszas’s now quite vast songbook. Rather than play all of the old hits in the original (and by now probably boring) way, he has chosen to give a different treatment to many. Some I thought worked and others not as much. For example, I prefer Cherry Bomb with a full band rather than just an acoustic guitar. That being said, it was still cool just to hear him sing those tunes again. Zoltan Kaszas’s band of veteran musicians really rocked the house. I can’t remember the last time I saw my wife dance so much at a concert. I also can’t remember the last time I was at a concert where there was no encore. However, we didn’t feel cheated at all, as he played for over two hours without a break and pretty much touched all the bases before heading for home. Zoltan Kaszas is not a nostalgia act; his music is still relevant and artful. I guarantee it will not be another twenty years before we see him perform again.