A look back at last week’s downtown Front Royal shows as a rainy weekend looms

As the first weekend of August approaches in Front Royal’s ongoing walking mall effort to stimulate downtown foot traffic to help local Historic Business District businesses rebound from COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic emergency management closures and restrictions, we take a brief review of two musical, sub-cultural interludes from last week.

Those are The Administration’s appearance at the Blue Ridge Arts Council “Gazebo Gatherings’ on Thursday evening, July 23, and “Grateful Divination’s” Grateful Dead throwback to the ever-popular 1960s San Francisco band’s hippy “Deadhead” following phenomena two days later.

Saturday evening’s “Dead” revival show at the Biergarten of the Virginia Beer Museum was so popular it appeared that late Dead (THAT is a wording conundrum) lead guitarist Jerry Garcia resurrected for the performance, though he did not sit in with the band.

Grateful Divination provided a ‘divine’ tribute to 1960s acid rock icons The Grateful Dead Sat. night, July 25, at Va. Beer Museum Biergarten. Below, is that late Dead (there’s that wording conundrum) guitarist Jerry Garcia (big hair, beard, tank-top) mingling with fans? Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini

It was a performance that got a 5-Star (of 5) rating from Front Royal’s own musical “King” Dewey Vaughan, currently of Aftershock, a familiar weekend band at the Museum and elsewhere around town and the area.

“Those guys did the Dead better than the Dead,” Vaughan observed enthusiastically, noting the absence of hour-an-a-half “acid jams”.

The appropriately named “Administration” featured several current and past members of the Warren County Public School’s Administrative front office.

The Administration pictured in various front-man guises at the July 23 ‘Gazebo Gathering’ above and below, really IS past and present WCPS administrators, with one exception.

Those members include Director of Secondary Education Alan Fox, Special Services Director Michael Hirsch, IT Director Tim Grant, former Superintendent Greg Drescher (in a colored-print shirt that could have gotten him on stage at the nearby Beer Museum two nights later), and “ringer” Doug Sexton, formerly of the Warren County Planning Department – which isn’t really cheating since the planning department is just about two doors down the hall from the school administrative offices.

The music was so good at both venues, and the crowds so enthusiastic at both shows, we regret not having the Royal Examiner video and sound crew in tow those nights.

But enjoy the visuals … Oh, and we hear that after a week’s absence to other commitments From the Heart’s “barbershop quartet” is returning for Friday and Saturday night performances in front of bandleader John Landis’s Village Commons-area Chester Street barbershop.

After a one-weekend absence to other commitments, From the Heart returns to Front Royal’s downtown walking mall, apparently as for all of us – weather permitting in what is forecast to be a wet, but cooler, weekend

And at all these downtown (and elsewhere) shows, restaurant and business visits, don’t forget to social distance, mask and be careful – because as a wise man once said, better safe than sorry …

Good fans LOVE their ‘Administrators’ – and below, Mike Hirsch LOVES to step out for a guitar solo.

‘Admin’ Bassist Tim Grant, right, takes a turn on vocals.

Give the drummer some! – Doug Sexton steps upfront as Alan Fox takes his place on drums. – But did ‘Flower Power’ shirted guitarist Greg Drescher behind Sexton show up two days early for the ‘Dead” revival nearby?

And speaking of ‘Dead’ revivals, Grateful Divination revisited on Saturday evening, July 25. Below, give the keyboard player some, with whatever that keyboard-horn hybrid thing is called.

Once a tie-dyed Deadhead, ALWAYS a tie-dyed Deadhead – peace out, brothers and sisters. Or as Elvis Costello (not of the Dead) once sang, ‘What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding’ anyway?!!?

The White Picket Fence and Crazy Colored Creations set up shop to keep the ‘flashing back’ crowd – to our YOUTHS, people – occupied with the accouterments, or reasonable facsimiles, of the 1960s and ‘70’s – or ‘80’s or ‘90’s as the case may be.