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Those Were The Days:
A Tribute To Eric Clapton
The Blue Moon, South Amboy, NJ - April 13, 2012Z
By Phil Rainone
Those Were The Days Band: Mike Lefton/guitars, Alan Lefton/bass,
Mike Carroll/drums, and Anthony Tota/keyboards
Starting off with a hot, funky, guitar flourish, Those Were
The Days opened their first of three sets with one of Derek
and The Dominos’ signature songs, “Got to Get
Better in a Little While.” The concise rapture of the
original was felt as the band brought everyone’s attention
front and center. When it got to the songs breaking point
from a funky to faster cadence, Mike pulled the throttle on
his drum kit, and we were off to a blissful nirvana! You just
knew this was going to be a special and fun night.
The band at times played with such advanced ferocity that
you couldn’t help but move to their beat in some way
or form. Covering a Yardbirds song that Alan mentioned Clapton
had hated when the Yardbirds got their first pop rock hit
from “For Your Love,” they captured the psychedelic,
bluesy pop of the original. Tony’s keyboard playing
nailed the original’s attention-getting cadence.
 This
brings up the question of, “When is a cover not a cover?”
As in the past with bands that have played at the Blue Moon
like The Mini Nowak Project, or The Chuck Lambert Band (I’m
sure you can come up with a few of your own special cover
bands), Those Were The Days have the ability to play a note-for-note
rendition, which would get kind of dull after a while, but
they also challenge themselves and the audience to disconnect
a little from the original, and bring it to other places,
other ideas, and it all works!
Throughout the sets Mike and Alan switched lead vocals, and
backed each other up as the band played through heated explosions
of songs from over 50 years of Clapton’s repertoire.
“Blues Power” gave Tony a chance to show how you
can go from a delicate backdrop, to a commanding lead, as
his keyboard weaved the songs honky-tonkish cadence with controlled
originality.
Buddy Holly’s “Well Alright” morphed from
the cool 50’s original, to Blind Faith’s pop rock
70’s version, to Those Were the Days’ galloping,
joyous updated version that included a short keyboard jam.
It really shows that a good song can go through a few changes,
and still sound fresh and original at the same time.
The rhythm section (Alan and Mike) held on to the opening
of “Presence of the Lord” like two disciples of
soul, and when it came time for Mike to rip the song wide
open with his fierce guitar work (even though you know the
fiery riff is coming, it still carried the shock of the new),
and Tony revved up keyboard finesse, you felt like they could
have gone anywhere with the 40 year plus tune, and we were
willing to follow limitlessly- they did and we did!
 Looking
at ease with a hometown crowd, they didn’t rest on their
laurels. They approached each song with the idea of having
something to prove. They brought out a few of my all-time
favorites like Cream’s “Badge,” which was
written by Clapton and George Harrison (later on towards the
end of the night they performed an almost note-perfect cover
of The Beatles “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”-
Side note: a couple of months ago Mike and Alan, with a pickup
drummer, performed as Yesterday and Today at the 2012 Beatlefest
(check: YouTube). As one out of about ten bands that performed,
they aced “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and
a song The Beatles originally wrote for The Stones, “I
Wanna Be Your Man.” In front of over 1,000 hardcore
Beatle fans they won the completion hands down). They also
did a rendition of The Dominos “Let it Rain,”
which like their original live version was stupendous!! They
were firing on all four cylinders!
 When
they got to Cream’s “Deserted Cities of the Heart,”
“Strange Brew,” “SWLABR” (which means,
“She Walks Like A Bearded Rainbow” - mind-blowing
lyrics!), and “Sunshine of Your Love,” there was
no stopping them. For over a year now, the band, in various
forms has been road testing most of these songs on the Thursday
Night Open Mike at The Blue Moon, and it had really paid off!
Like Hendrix’s version of “Sunshine…”
(check his versions of “Sgt. Peppers…” it
is nasty/cool), Those Were The Days fired off shrapnel-raining
runs, and long searing riffs across Alan and Mike’s
bonded swing.
When is a cover song not a cover song? When it’s in
the confident, original hands of Those Were The Days!
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