Lady Luck continues to shine on the Roslyn Chamber of Commerce’s free concerts in Roslyn Park.
Last year, the weather cooperated beautifully as a Beatles tribute band entertained a large crowd enjoying the summer evening. Last Wednesday, Captain Jack, a Billy Joel tribute band, brought home the music of one of Long Island’s most accomplished sons.
“It’s wonderful,” said Lonnie Goldman, chamber president, as he surveyed the crowd while the band played popular favorites. “We’re having great weather.” Goldman estimated the crowd size as up to 300 people.
The audience was set for the evening, with picnic food and drinks, while youngsters played on the swing sets.
Captain Jack, made up of mostly Long Island natives, was making its first appearance in Roslyn. While singing the classic, “New York State of Mind,” lead singer and keyboardist Christian Macchio, revised the chorus line to, “It comes down to reality, and its fine with me cause I’ve let it slide/I don’t care if it’s Roslyn or on Riverside.” The band’s opening number, “Miami 2017 (I’ve Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway”), also paid homage to the host village, reworking one of the final lines to “You know those lights were bright on Broadway/That was so many years ago/Before we all lived here in Roslyn.” Throughout the show, Macchio praised the natural beauty of the village.
The concert proceeded smoothly. During the rendition of an early 1980’s classic, “Pressure,” the band set experienced a brief power outage. Macchio quipped that maybe the electricity was under too much pressure itself.
All throughout the evening, young families socialized, as parents (and grandparents) sang along to songs that made up the soundtrack of their own youths. Big Shot played the standards: “Movin’ Out, “She’s Always A Woman,” “I Love You Just The Way You Are,” “Sleeping With The Television On,” “Zanzibar,” “The Stranger,” “Allentown,” “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant,” plus “2017,” an apocalyptic view of New York life written during the stormy 1970s and “New York State Of Mind,” a song that Joel wrote in response to criticism of the city that he encountered during his exile in Los Angeles.
