By Diane Urbani de la Paz
Peninsula Spotlight
PORT ANGELES — When played with gusto, this music is forever young.
So believes Jeff Lockhart, the drummer who, with his band Creme Tangerine, has seen how Beatles songs electrify people — whatever their age and musical taste.
“There’s such an energy. You’re not playing for the audience; you’re playing with them,” said Lockhart, who formed the Tangerine nine years ago.
The Seattle band has come out to the North Olympic Peninsula a handful of times over the past three years; they’re bringing the Beatles back this Saturday night to Olympic Cellars, 255410 U.S. Highway 101 just east of Port Angeles.
Line in a song
Named after a line in the Fab Four’s song “Savoy Truffle,” Creme Tangerine is known for pouring plenty of juice into its shows. Doing so feels fresh and good, Lockhart says, because even after all these years, the songs mean a lot to people.
The band’s Saturday night gig is Olympic Cellars’ second-to-last concert of the summer. Tickets are $10, and show time is 7 p.m. The gates open at 6 p.m. for the outdoor show, during which Mystery Bay Seafood will offer supper and Olympic Cellars will pour wines.
Guests are welcome to bring their own lawn chairs, food and non-alcoholic beverages.
This time out, the Tangerine will blend dollops of classic rock in with its moptop numbers. So along with “Come Together,” there will come Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets,” the Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar,” Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll,” “Born to Be Wild” and “Magic Carpet Ride” from Steppenwolf, “All Right Now” from Bad Company and the Neil Diamond-Monkees hit “I’m a Believer.”
“We’re going to mix it up,” Lockhart predicted, “from the ’60s to the ’80s.”
But there are a couple of songs that, you could say, are carved in a stone set list. The first is one everybody loves, “no matter what planet you’re from,” Lockhart says.
Perennial favorite
“You are not getting off that stage,” he adds, “until you play ‘Hey Jude,’” that classic Paul McCartney wrote a mere 44 years ago.
The other song “everybody knows, all the time,” Lockhart says, is the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” which is just 47 years old.
Lately, Lockhart and company have been running around the Pacific Northwest with saxophonist E.J. Erickson, so Creme Tangerine is a rather big band.
Not impersonators
They’re not Beatles nor Stones impersonators, Lockhart emphasizes. And this season’s tour, titled “Summer Fun on the Run,” is a nod to the Paul McCartney and Wings album “Band on the Run” from back in 1973.
If there’s a goal they’re running toward, Lockhart says, it’s full enjoyment of the moment.
He’s been playing drums since he was 11 and has been in bands ever since middle school. He remembers what it’s like to play for a small and uninterested group. Lockhart recalls, in fact, a corporate gig where exactly one person paused long enough to listen.
Energetic crowd
It’s a different story now. At this time last summer, Creme Tangerine played to about 500 dancing, applauding fans at Olympic Cellars.
“That’s not lost on me,” Lockhart says. “I never take that for granted.”
And so on these summer nights, he and his band mix up a musical party punch and watch it work its magic. These songs make it possible, Lockhart says, for us to “all get together and just have a good time.”
For more about the Creme Tangerine concert as well as the winery’s final show of the season — the Red Hot Blues Sisters on Aug. 25 — visit www.OlympicCellars.com or phone 360-452-0162.
