The musical pedigree of the Robin Zander Band stretches beyond that of the Cheap Trick singer who leads the group.
The band, which will perform Friday at Wiens Family Cellars in Temecula, also includes drummer Steve Luongo, guitarist Mike Hitt and bassist Larry Hobbs, players who have performed with rock ‘n’ roll icons, including The Who’s John Entwistle and Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and John Bonham.
“We are a lot of fun to see as a band and play the songs and bring back memories, and they are songs that everyone knows coupled with a couple from my solo records, as well as a couple fresh songs done by us,” Zander said in a recent telephone interview. “You just never know what songs we could do. The set list changes from show to show, and believe me it is an ongoing process.”
The focus is on having a good time.
“If your band is having a good time that reflects on the audience,” Zander said. “Performing live is an adventure. You might even see a puppet on stage.”
It is clear that the band enjoys being around each other and doing concerts whenever they can.
“I do have another gig and that is still a viable one and going on for forty years, but the thing is when I have free time that’s when we come alive,” Zander said.
“The reason we haven’t played in so long is its touring season for Robin and Cheap Trick. After all of these years we have all done music for a lifetime and it is a cool thing to do when we can all get together,” Luongo said.
Luongo played with John Entwistle and Leslie West of Mountain. Hitt’s worked with Plant and Rat Race Choir, of which Luongo was also a member.
“This is a live band and I think the coolest thing is it is the traditional roots of classic rock, which used to be called rock,” Luongo said.
Luongo believes that the chemistry is what really works.
“If there’s one thing about the band is that there’s something intangible about it,” he said. “When you have the kind of chemistry we have, you don’t really rehearse There’s an unspoken language and that’s what make the magic for us.”
“Maybe we are rough around the edges, but it’s magical,” Zander added. “There are risks involved with doing the songs, but if it doesn’t pay off then that’s something to laugh at. We are up there to just play the song the way we want to play it and have fun and the freedom to do it.”
And if you want to hear a song, almost any song, this is the chance.
“We do a pretty long set list in some places and at the end of the set we will get requests,” Zander said. “We will usually play it, but we might do it differently. Someone might yell out ‘I Want You to Want Me,’ and we will do it but we will do it a different way.”
So what songs make up the set lists? It could be Who songs, AC/DC songs (“It’s a Long Way to the Top” has shown up on the set list), Cheap Trick songs, Rolling Stones songs and Zander solo songs.
“We can do a lot of different things in the set that are familiar and we do it the way we do it to sound like us,” Zander said. “I’m not Robert Plant, so I’m not going to sound like him, but I sound like me and that’s how we sound.”
For Zander it’s about having fun with his fans.
“It’s about having fun and making them happy, so if someone wants to hear a song it’s neither here nor there,” he said. “There’s a magic and freedom here and nothing is completely planned out. Heck, my mistakes are better than anything I’ve thought out!”
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