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<\/a>\u201cWhat\u2019s your Name? Who\u2019s your Daddy?\u201d I guess that it really doesn\u2019t matter because most folks over forty know The Zombies for their hit \u201cTime of the Season\u201d and some of the older folks remember 1964\u2019s \u201cShe\u2019s not There\u201d. The Zombies are probably best remembered as one of the British invasion bands that took the American airwaves by storm with their rocking pop ditties in the same path as The Beatles. Yes, they are all of that, but people don\u2019t remember them for their vocal harmonies that rivaled the Beach Boys or their mellotron orchestration that was contemporary and comparable to that of the Moody Blues. The Zombies even tiptoed along that psychedelic jazz ledge that the Soft Machine careened over.<\/p>\nWith their induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame scheduled for 2019, the band is getting a resurgence of attention and have been doing a bit of touring as well. In its most recognizable line up, the Zombies were Rod Argent on keys, Colin Blunstone on vocals, Chris White on bass with Paul Atkinson on guitar and Hugh Grundy on drums. It was Argent\u2019s soaring structured piano and organ solos with Blunstone\u2019s wide ranging vocals that made the band\u2019s style distinctive. Chris White was also a central figure to the band, writing many of their songs.<\/p>\n
Ironically, the bands biggest hit, \u201cTime of the Season\u201d, didn\u2019t hit the charts until the band had broken up. It was the last track on the famously misspelled, \u201cOdessey and Oracle\u201d LP, which was the culmination of Argent\u2019s and White\u2019s most creative writing and arranging period during the life of the Zombies. Argent and White teamed up again later in the 1970\u2019s band, Argent, producing hits like \u201cHold Your Head Up\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s Only Money\u201d, while Blunstone pursued a solo career that saw a good deal of success in the UK. The Zombies reunited several times in different incarnations in the last couple of decades. In 2015, Argent and Blunstone teamed up for a fiftieth anniversary record titled \u201cStill Got that Hunger\u201d.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>For this year\u2019s tour, the core team of Argent and Blunstone added Tom Toomey on guitar, Steve Rodford on drums and most recently Soren Koch on bass. The band opened up the show with Jr. Walker\u2019s classic blues number, \u201cI\u2019m a Road Runner\u201d, followed quickly by 2015\u2019s \u201cI Want You Back Again\u201d. They then performed \u201cI Love You\u201d that had been a Zombies \u201cB\u201d side that was taken to the charts by the Canadian band, People. They then moved on to two more from \u201cStill Got That Hunger\u201d, \u201cMoving On\u201d and \u201cEdge of the Rainbow\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/zombiesearly.jpg\")
<\/a>The show\u2019s feel was a fantastic combination of a sixties British invasion concert and an all-out seventies rock extravaganza. Colin still has his range and Rod can still put together a fantastic keyboard run. The remainder of the band was professional hired guns and delivered when the time was right. The audience was predominantly over fifty, but still rocking and fun to be around.<\/p>\n