Garage (and rock) legends the Pandoras played a reunion gig at the Casbah August 16.
I never saw the Pandoras with Paula Pierce, so I don’t really know what I’m missing. I certainly did miss Kim Shattuck, whom I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. But the music is strong, and it survives, being played by Melanie Vammen on keyboards and guitar, Sheri Kaplan-Weinstein on drums, Natalie Grace Sweet on bass, and Karen Blankfeld-Basset on guitar and vocals.
And it’s great music! They basically covered their whole career. Half the set was basically their garage/Paisely Underground legacy with Melanie on keyboards. Later on in the set, she switched to guitar, and they played the more “rock” songs. They even played a song from an unreleased album that never got put by Elektra (which would be nice to see an official release of). Live and loud, everything came across as just excellent raw rockin’ garage music with a tinge of pop. Great energy. Great songs. A lot of fun and a great celebration of their music and legacy!
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