Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic “More stars than there are in heaven!” crowed Peter Zaremba, lead singer of the Fleshtones, taking a cue from MGM’s famous slogan of the 1930s and ’40s as he boisterously extolled the cast of performers taking part in Friday night’s tribute to the garage-rock of the middle and 1960s.
The salute took the form of a semi-reconstruction of the 1972 compilation album “Nuggets,” put together by the Wild Honey Foundation as one of its annual autism benefits at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, with the original compiler of “Nuggets,” Lenny Kaye, on board as emcee, resident historian, cheerleader and intermittent singer-guitarist.
There was something at least half-serious in Zaremba’s MGM-invoking statement: it was a hell of an intergenerational cast coming together to perform these 32 rock ‘n’ roll chestnuts.
Yet, in invoking the golden age of Hollywood celebrity, Zaremba was being a wise guy, too. You’d definitely have to consider yourself part of the rock cognoscenti if you knew most of the “stars” on the bill — or know a plurality of the songs in the set list, for that matter.
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