Inside the Kern County Fair’s Budweiser Pavilion Thursday night, the bleachers were packed to their brims with fans of the ’70s pop rock band, Three Dog Night.
The sounds of rustling were accompanied by small waves of people going up and down. And this was not a stadium filled only with those who lived in the generation to which the band was born in. There was a wide range of ages in this crowd, from those who discovered Three Dog Night in their youth, to those young ones who are realizing them now.
The concert opened with each instrument introducing itself. The audience’s attention was seized by a pulsing drumbeat, then a cool, deep bass entered in. But those are just the added sounds for the evening. The real show begins when the tried-and-true original members come onstage.
Organist Jimmy Greenspoon presents himself with a joyous melody that is soon added to by the ripping cords of Michael Allsup’s guitar. Then, together, lead singers Danny Hutton and Chuck Negron rush up, snatching the microphones and chanting the namesake of the band in harmonic tones.
Three Dog Night loves the crowd and they make a special effort to make sure that their fans know that they too, are apart of the show. During their second number, “One Man Band,” the band makes the hard-hitting drumbeat more intense by revving up the audience into clapping along with the song.
In between tunes, Hutton is witty and playful with the crowd, cracking jokes about the era in which their band was best known.
“We’re gonna take you back to the early ’70s,” Hutton quips. “You remember them, don’t you?”
Then with a mischievous smile, he delivers the killer, “‘Cause we don’t.”
The crowd erupted with laughter.
After continuous songs with upbeat music, the band changes the pace and allows master keyboardist Greenspoon to show his chops. The solo has a heavy “Phantom of the Opera” vibe to its opening, but then quickly changes to a melody that dances along with Greenspoon’s fingers.
Following that small pause, the party starts again when the band makes the crowd go wild with the performance of their first No. 1 hit single, “One is the Loneliest Number.” The fans that come from the ’70s generation have no problem expressing their love for the tunes that moved them so many years ago. They whip their arms around in a psychedelic dance and swing their hips to the grooves.
The lights dim and the band exits the stage, but that is not the last of their show. The crowd cheers for an encore, they yearn for one certain song to be played and the band grants them this. On come the lights again and Hutton clutches the mike and screams the opening lyrics, “Jeremiah was a bullfrog!”
And so begins the band’s flagship song, “Joy to the World.”
Now this is what the crowd came for. They are on their feet dancing and singing along, each person with love in their eyes for a band that can still move them 20 years after their youth.