The Bands of Summer Finale

JumpStreet concludes concert series at the Iron Works

By Laura Eisener

The last concert of the summer was appreciated by a good crowd on the Iron Works lawn on August 27. Due to some miscommunications, the band started playing at 5 and ended at 7, so the concert was half over by the time most people made their way to the site, but once they did they wasted no time making the most of this last party of the summer.

The band brings a blue street sign – proclaiming the location “Jump Street” – to the stage. Band members are Mark Retallack on keyboard, Michael Ruggelo on drums and Joe Holaday on guitar.

There was an interesting assortment of songs from several decades of pop, rock and a few other music genres – when I arrived just before 6, I heard a song that was at the top of the charts when I had just graduated from high school and was working as a waitress at a bar in a harbor town – just like the main character in the song; “Brandy” was written by Eliot Lurie and made popular by his band Looking Glass, but the singer who frequently performed it where I worked in Kennebunk, Maine, was the late Maine singer Dave Mallett, best known for writing “The Garden Song.”

Next, JumpStreet gave the audience a choice between the Allman Brothers or Chicago. The crowd chose the Allman Brothers, so their 1997 hit “Whipping Post” written by Gregg Allman was the next song. Chicago fans were not disappointed, however, because they also did the song “Silent” written by Robert Lamm for Chicago, which was one of their first hits. Another song that people enjoyed, and many sang along to, was the 1966 hit “Walk Away Renée,” which was cowritten by Michael Brown, Tony Sansone and Bob Calilli of the band The Left Banke. Jackson Browne’s 1970s hit “Running on Empty” and “Take It Easy” cowritten by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey were some other songs worth noting.

They were the third band of this summer’s series to include the Bee Gees’ hit “To Love Somebody” among their choices. They also sang Happy Birthday to two birthday girls: Jean and Sabrina. The final song of the evening was “All Right Now” written by Paul Rodgers and Andy Fraser of the English band Free, which made it a hit in 1970. On that note the crowd packed up their folding chairs and blankets and headed home, keeping the happy memories of another summer of community concerts.

This marked the fourth consecutive summer that the Saugus Public Library and the National Park Service collaborated on a free concert series at the Iron Works.