THESE days It's A Beautiful Day are possibly most fondly regarded by record collectors, the sort who'll buy the San Francisco legends' first album for quite a lot of money and never play it.
They should listen to it, though, because in its current incarnation that music, which formed the basis for this set-list, stands up remarkably well.
Forty-odd years have passed since the anthemic, soaring White Bird, the agreeably parched, languid Hot Summer Day et al made singer-violinist David LaFlamme and his troupe stalwarts of FM radio, rock festivals and sampler albums. LaFlamme is now a very youthful 72 and plays and sings with the commitment of someone about a third his age. With his wife, Linda on vocals and tambourine, guitarist Rob Espinosa and English bass guitar and drums team, Steve Browning and Matt Wheatley, he isn't so much recreating the sound that IABD apparently relayed from the Fillmore West stage 165 times, although it's true to the template, as giving it a hot-off-the-press immediacy.
The opening, spontaneously chosen, instrumental Don & Dewey, a piece of vintage IABD, sizzled with swingabilly urgency and the more recent, bluesy Misery Loves Company found the LaFlammes singing with soulful understanding and terrific vigour. LaFlamme has a tale or two to tell, including the story of how his instrumental Bombay Calling came to be better known as Deep Purple's Child In Time, and as a host he's a genial faux-grouch. As a bandleader he knows how to get results, though, creating brilliantly precise ensemble punctuation and ensuring that the finale, Time Is, is as hot as parting shots get.
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