The Modern Gentlemen spent a decade with Frankie Valli during his post-Four Seasons career, but this group’s songbook runs much deeper.
That was evident Tuesday in Savannah Center when The Modern Gentlemen gave an appreciative and nostalgic audience a musical history lesson.
Todd Fournier, Landon Beard and brothers Brandon and Brian Brigham took their fans on a four-part harmony trip that spanned generations.
TMG – as they like to be called – have been together for nearly two decades. On stage, they covered the sounds of Frank Sinatra, the Platters, Dion, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and the Bee Gees and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
They opened the show with a mashup of the Beatles’ “Love Me Do,” and Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” TMG performed those songs with a glossy, jazzy, pop ambience.
That’s the trick for these guys: take an old favorite and make it new again by adding harmony, choreography and the backing of a tight band.
Their performance was enhanced by personality and comedy. The members of TMG love to interact with the audience.
Todd Fournier jumped off the stage at one point and started doing the twist with a lady in the front row, during a cover of the Beatles’ “Twist and Shout.” There was more Beatles’ energy on “I Saw Her Standing There.”
One of the quartet joked during a sing-a-long when he asked, “all the single women under 35 to sing.”
Wrong place another singer told him, we’re in The Villages. “Oh yeah,” he replied, “all the single women under 85 can sing.”
TMG shined with a stirring doo-wop version of the Platters’ “Only You.” Then they combined a kind of Four Freshmen/Frank Sinatra sound on the old Sinatra standard, “Witchcraft.”
The pace picked up during a Beach Boys’ tribute with rocking versions of “Barbara Ann” and “Surfin’ USA.”
Next came the Bee Gees.
“I was lucky enough to be in a stage production of ‘Saturday Night Fever,’” said Brian Brigham. “This was my favorite song from the Bee Gees.”
He offered a tender version of “How Deep Is Your Love,” enhanced by the harmony of the other singers on stage.
Fournier brought back some golden oldie rocking sounds with his take on Dion’s “Runaround Sue,” that had the audience jumping and jiving with the group.
It was all part of The Modern Gentlemen concert performance that made music history come alive.
Tony Violanti covers arts and music for Villages-News.com. He was inducted into the Buffalo NY Music Hall of Fame as a music journalist.
