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Review
Rock Fans Miss Great Performance
by Jack Batten, Toronto Globe and Mail
The symbol painted on the bass drum looked alot like one of those Happy Face buttons, bright and smiling and optimistic. This was at Massey Hall last night where Poco, the U.S. rock band played and concert, and that symbol, on Poco’s drummer’s kit, said as much as anything about the kind of evening it was. Happy — sure it was that, and even more, it was a night of good pop music, intelligently conceived and conscientiously played, as good as any rock show we’ve had in the city for a long time.
The only thing missing was an audience. Where were you, rock fans? Wy’d you pass up this one? Only about 1,800 people arrived at Massey Hall, enough to fill about three quarters of the house. Too bad.
Nothing too complex about Poco. That band just plays good, cheerful, well thought-out, good-time, toe-tapping rock. There are five men in the band, and one of them plays steel guitar, thus introducing a nice country feel to the music. The general instrumental sound is reminiscent of the old Buffalo Springfield; the songs aren’t as distinctive as the things Neil Young or Stephen Stills came up with for that band, but the basic sound is just as cheerfully affecting.
And Poco — one more thing to cheer about — also boasts a Toronto connections. Jack Richardson of Nimbus 9 on Hazelton Street is the band’s very own producer. He and Poco have a new album ready for release any day no, and judging from the taste of it that the band offered last night, it ought to be a winner.