Item details

Date

Wednesday, August 28, 2024 8:00PM

Description

The State Theatre Presents

John Sebastian and Jimmy Vivino

The State Theatre
Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Doors: 7pm
Show: 8pm

Over four decades the contributions of John Sebastian have become a permanent part of our American musical fabric.

His group The Lovin’ Spoonful played a major role in the mid-’60s rock revolution, but what leader, singer and songwriter Sebastian had in mind was actually a counter-revolution. “We were grateful to the Beatles for reminding us our rock & roll roots,” John explains, “but we wanted to cut out the English middlemen, so to speak, and get down to making this new music as an ‘American’ band.”

This the Lovin’ Spoonful did like nobody before or since, putting their first seven singles into the Top 10. This was unprecedented, and utterly unthinkable at the height of Beatlemania. At first they’d taken older material from blues, country, folk and jug band sources – what we now term “roots music” – and made it sound modern. Then, in a series of original songs composed and sung by John Sebastian, they did the reverse, creating thoroughly modern music that sounded like it contained the entire history of American music. Which it did.

You know the songs by heart: “Do You Believe In Magic?” “You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice.” “Daydream.” “Younger Girl.” “Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?” “Summer In The City.” “Rain On The Roof.” “Nashville Cats.” “Six O’Clock.” “Darling Be Home Soon.” “Younger Generation.” These songs did more than simply answer the British invasion, they carried the musical tradition into the future.

Jimmy Vivino serves as the Music Director on the TBS late night show "CONAN." Vivino has been a consistent element in O'Brien's late night career, starting with the first episode of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in September 1993. In June of 2008 Vivino moved from New York to Los Angeles and worked as Music Director/guitarist/arranger on "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien," "The Legally Prohibited from Being on Television Tour" and currently leads "Jimmy Vivino and The Basic Cable Band" on "CONAN."