It was a nice, warm afternoon in Moorpark, CA when I arrived for the St. Jude’s Hospital benefit concert with Robby Krieger and friends. The grounds of the golf course are beautiful and I was blown away by the stadium-sized stage and elaborate production for the event. The event started with a presentation and a few auction items and a comedian named Mark Eddie performed. He was pretty funny, but he should have exhibited a little sensitivity with respect to the event and modified some of the content of his act for this performance. Tow things to remember – don’t make fun of heavy metal (whether you like it or not) and don’t sing songs and make jokes about “dying” while onstage at a children’s hospital event Not cool. Other than that, all the stories and presentations were very moving and there were many generous contributions made during the auction to raise funds.
Pictures leading up to show time
The show started with Robby’s backing band and Sebastian Bach singing “The Crystal Ship” by The Doors.
OPENING OF THE SHOW – Robby Krieger and Friends with Sebastian Bach
Danny Seraphine, original drummer from Chicago then joined the band, along with Tommy Thayer of KISS and they jammed several Chicago songs – “25 or 6 to 4” and “Saturday In The Park”
SEBASTIAN BACH PERFORMING WITH ROBBY KRIEGER, TOMMY THAYER AND DANNY SERAPHINE
Sebastian then took to background vocals as Travis Davis (bass player for Danny’s band, CTA) sang and played “I’m A Man”.
ROBBY KRIEGER TOMMY THAYER DANNY SERAPHINE ST JUDES BENEFIT MOORPARK COUNTRY CLUB 9/16/2013
Sebastian then joined up with Tommy Thayer and KISS drummer Eric singer to belt out some KISS classics.
SEBASTIAN BACH performing KISS tunes with Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer of KISS
Robby dedicated the second half of the show to Ray Manzarek and threw on a T-shirt in tribute to him.
Dave Brock of Wild Child fame (and also a member of Manzarek/Krieger) joined during the second set and sounded just like Jim Morrison when he sang The Doors tunes. This was one of the most incredible moments of the evening.
DAVE BROCK with Robby Krieger and Friends Moorpark Country Club 9/16/2013
Gary Mule Deer treated the crowd to some hilarious jokes and a rocking Johnny Cash tune.
Young Ray Goren then took the stage with the band and astonished the crowd by his playing and singing that re way beyond his years. Fantastic!
RAY GOREN with Robby Krieger and Friends
I started leaving after Ray performed just around 10:00 and I think I heard “Roadhouse Blues” being played on my way out. A truly excellent event.
Among many other nice offerings for charity, this was the car that was auctioned off to benefit St. Jude’s Hospital.
Concertologist 