Band Review: Ambrosia

Going back many blog posts, Gin Blossoms were on my original three bands that I regretted not seeing in Eugene, and the other two, the Presidents of the United States of America and the Cherry Popping Daddies, were both bands that I saw at the Crystal Ballroom, so it occurred to me that it would be fitting to see the Gin Blossoms there.

That did not happen, but two from the expanded list, the All American Rejects and Keane, were healed at the Crystal, so it is still coming through for me. Still with old posts, I have also written about the Crystal’s history of having horrible opening bands, and that is something that has improved greatly. Perhaps I am more appreciative now, but looking back, some of those bands were truly awful. Where I am trying to put all of this together is that I would not expect to like Ambrosia, but I did.

Until that night, I could not even remember their name. Twice people mentioned them as as the opening band for Gin Blossoms, and having never heard of them, it went in one ear and out the other. I did ask once if the other person knew anything about them, and they were from the 70’s, and that did not motivate me to remember.

Here is the thing about the 70’s: I spent them listening to 50’s music. I found the music annoying and depressing, and then the 80’s came and made everything better. And then I found out there were things happening in the 70’s that I had not heard of that were not awful. I mean, I was born in 1972, so regardless of whether local radio stations were cool or not, I was at the mercy of what other people decided to listen to. (In the case of my parents, it feels like it was mainly ABBA, Neil Diamond, and Ray Conniff.)

So, I did not have high expectations for Ambrosia, but they really rocked their show. They were into it. They were lively, they were having fun, and they really got the crowd going. That was great.

Yes, the name was completely unfamiliar to me, but the music was not. I have definitely heard “How Much I Feel” and “Biggest Part of Me”. I may have heard “You’re the Only Woman” before, though I can’t be sure. I don’t know if I actually heard them on the radio, or they were on commercials for “Songs of the 70’s” type collections, but I know they were there.

I’m pretty sure that I never heard “Nice, Nice, Very Nice” until I was listening to them on Spotify in preparation for writing this. If I had, it would have been one of those songs that made me put on At the Hop again. However, I don’t think they played it that night, so all was well.

I know this is rambling, but here are two points I want to make from this, and they are related.

Firstly, okay, this is not my band, but there are people for whom they are the band. There were many people trying to get old albums signed, and the lead singer said they keep meeting girls named Ambrosia who were born in that time period.

My other point is that, okay, they are not my band, and that is exactly why I  have rambled so much in trying to convey my feelings about them, but I still enjoyed their show. And what this shows me is that when you have people who are good at what they do, you can appreciate that and enjoy it, even if it isn’t to your taste.

Those bands I complained about at the Crystal just weren’t that good. Ambrosia is really good. They have to be. All of the odds were in favor of me completely zoning out on them, or just being really irritated, and they didn’t let me do that, because they were good.

I appreciate that.