CONCERT REVIEW Three Dog Night gets warm reaction from old, young

Despite bad audio, the performance was a hit.
By ROBERT ROLLIN
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
Saturday evening's opening Youngstown Symphony Pops Concert witnessed the full-house appearance of stellar rock group Three Dog Night.
From its inception in 1969, the group has had an uncanny ability to find songs destined to be hits. The appreciative audience was a nice mix of older fans and families with teenagers.
Emerging after an effectively orchestrated overture replete with short references to the group's hits and energetically conducted by Music Director Larry Baird, the six-piece ensemble performed the ever-popular Bonner and Gordon song "Celebrate," from the debut album.
Lead singer Danny Hutton was excellent in the 1972 hit "Black and White," a feel-good song about equal opportunities. "Sault Ste. Marie," from the new album, "Live with the Tennessee Symphony," closed with a nice Cory Wells harmonica solo.
Lively response
The wonderful Paul Williams 1971 oldie, "An Old Fashioned Love Song," was beautifully harmonized and elicited a lively audience reaction after a set of lesser-known songs. It is fine delivery of songs such as this that has created the group's enormous following.
An eventful orchestral interlude with an expressive cello solo led into the poignant Harry Nilsson tune, "One," the group's first single hit song. This was followed by "Overground" from the new 35th Anniversary Album.
Ballard's "Liar," a 1971 hit, included intense keyboard and lead guitar solos by Greenspoon and Allsup respectively, and led to a more bluesy set including "Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues) and Randy Newman's "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)."
The final oldies set was preceded by induction of the lead singers into the Vocal Music Hall of Fame.
Bad audio
Despite a very appreciative audience, the concert was plagued by bad audio. The sound was set to an extremely high treble level, causing significant distortion. Although not much of a problem for the rock portion of the evening -- since rock concertgoers seem to crave distortion and excessive loudness -- the portion reserved for the Symphony performance of ragtime, jazz, and a march suffered terribly.
The three Joplin ragtime pieces, "The Entertainer," "Easy Winner" and the marvelous "Maple Leaf Rag" had nice tempo and dynamics, but each time the piccolo played, it was shrill and it overbalanced the rest of the orchestra.
The overemphasis of the treble side caused the harp and keyboard percussion to sound excessively brittle in Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady," which also seemed a bit too slow. The piece seemed to lack its usual continuity.
Raffle winner
Atty. William Biviano, winner of the Symphony Guild's raffle to conduct the orchestra, did an enthusiastic job with "Stars and Stripes Forever," but the closing piccolo solo was marred by excessive miking. It's a pity the effective performances were distorted by poor electronic sound reproduction.