Oct. 6, 1979 review: The Cars in Memorial Auditorium

Oct. 6, 1979 

Revved Up Cars Run Fine – Except for Mid-Set Stall

Behind those bug-eyed sunglasses and that angular black hair, Ric Ocasek stands coldly at his microphone Friday night in Memorial Auditorium, looking like a grand vizier in some comic strip set in the 21st century.

Ocasek's image is high-modern, a combination of carefully cultivated and immaculately controlled effects. And so is the band, since the Cars are pretty much his brainchild.

Visually, they limit the spectrum to three colors – red, white and black – with a bit of green lighting or wavy spotlight projections on their backdrop for contrast.

Musically, they're just as minimal. They knock the extraneous stuff out of rock 'n roll, building most of their material off the super-crisp drums of David Robinson and the abrupt chunks of Ocasek's rhythm guitar.

It takes a certain kind of intensity to make this kind of music rock, but rock they do. They heighten it with synthesized vocals and Greg Hawkes' keyboard effects, making an already stark sound signature even more eerie.

When it doesn't work, the Cars bog down, which is what happens in the middle of the set. Since fog delayed their flight from Boston, they didn't get a proper sound check, and that compounds the flatness.

Singer Ben Orr (whose blond hair has been rinsed brown) suffers from a weak microphone. The synthesizers overpower the guitars.

But when it works, as it does on both ends of the 75-minute set, the music becomes dense and liberating. It works best, of course, on the songs 7,500 fans know best – "Let the Good Times Roll," "Let's Go," "Bye Bye Love," "Candy-O," "My Best Friend's Girl" and "You're All I've Got Tonight," which is enhanced by a fine Elliot Easton guitar solo.

The Cars finish with their initial hit, "Just What I Needed," and return a second time to drive everybody home with another favorite, "She's a Lot Like You," with the house lights up.

Opening was the British foursome Bram Tchaikovsky, which played a highly agreeable set that owed a lot to the harmonies and rhythm guitar sound of the mid '60s. They won over the crowd with their recent single, "Girl of My Dreams," and a remaking of the Monkees' 1967 hit, "I'm a Believer."

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IN THE PHOTO: The Cars in 1979.

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FOOTNOTE: In a preview to the concert in Gusto, a phone interview with drummer David Robinson revealed that he had a lot to do with the band's look. A collector of pin-up art, he came up with the idea of hiring Esquire and Playboy artist Alberto Vargas to do the cover of their second album, "Candy-O." He's also the one behind their name and their red-white-and-black color scheme. He stopped playing when the Cars broke up in 1988, ran a restaurant and in recent years has had an art gallery in Rockport, Mass., where he sells jewelry he makes.

Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes have been part of Cars revivals and reunions. Ben Orr died in 2000. Ric Ocasek left us in 2019.

The account of what the Cars played that night in the Aud is incomplete on setlist.fm. Here's what they did the next night in Utica Memorial Auditorium:

Got a Lot on My Head

Good Times Roll

Let's Go

Night Spots

Since I Held You

Double Life

Moving in Stereo

Candy-O

Don't Cha Stop

Bye Bye Love

All Mixed Up

Take What You Want

You're All I've Got Tonight

Just What I Needed

(encore)

         Dangerous Type