Doobies Takin’ It To Sandpoint To Open Festival

Not a bad start to the revamped Festival at Sandpoint: The Doobie Brothers show on Wednesday, the opening concert, is already sold out.

If you don’t already have your tickets, well, you’ll just have to console yourself with George Benson, Booker T. Jones, John Mayall or one of the other concerts in this two-week festival. Not a bad consolation.

Still, the Doobie Brothers are by far the biggest act, in terms of name recognition, at this year’s festival. This San Jose-based band was one of the giants of ‘70s rock. The band went belly-up through most of the ‘80s, but got back together in 1989 for another hit song, “The Doctor,” and they have been successfully working the classic-rock revival circuit for the past three years.

The band has gone through so many incarnations that when all of the past and present members reunited in 1992 for a benefit concert, the stage was crowded with 12 of them. However, their current cast includes eight members, including key figures Patrick Simmons, Tom Johnston and Keith Knudsen.

Doobies aficionados will recognize this lineup as being similar to the pre-1975 Doobies, which was considerably harder-rocking than the post-1975 Doobies, which were dominated by the white-soul vocal stylings of Michael McDonald.

Before McDonald arrived, guitarist Johnston Johnston was the main songwriter and creative force. He wrote “Listen to the Music” (1972), “Long Train Runnin”’ (1973) and “China Grove” (1973). Many consider this period the Doobies’ creative apex, as they smoothly combined elements of country, folk and blues into a tightly harmonized package.

Simmons came into his own at about this time. He wrote “Black Water,” a swamp-inflected Southern tune which showed off the group’s impressive and soulful a cappella harmonies.

Then Johnston became ill and he was replaced by Michael McDonald, who guided the band in a more mellow, middle-of-the-road, keyboard-driven sound. The Doobies had some of their biggest hits with this sound, including, “Takin’ It to the Streets” (1976), “It Keeps You Running” (1977), “What a Fool Believes” (1979) and “Minute by Minute” (1979).

There will be no opening act.

This year, the Festival at Sandpoint has restricted the audience to 2,500 at Memorial Field, which should mean better sight lines for everyone. There will be no reserved seating this year (there will only be a small sponsors’ section). A blanket or a low beach-type chair are the smartest seating options; those in higher chairs will be strongly encouraged to sit at the back so they don’t obstruct any views.

If the crowd jumps up to dance (and that will not be discouraged this year), there will be raised seating areas in the grandstand for those who want to sit and still see the show.

A little advice for novice festival-goers. You may have to park five or six blocks away, so leave yourself plenty of time. The best thing to do is to get there an hour or so early, and then buy yourself some dinner at one of the 11 food booths lining the field.

Bring a jacket or sweater; the evenings can get chilly quickly on the banks of Lake Pend Oreille.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: SOLD OUT The Doobie Brothers performance at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Memorial Field in Sandpoint is sold out. For tickets and information about any of the other Festival at Sandpoint concerts, call the festival box office at (888) 265-4554, go to any G&B Select-a-Seat outlet or charge by phone at 325-SEAT or (800) 325-SEAT.