Jefferson Starship/Grand Funk Railroad concert included 20 songs, three original musicians

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

Jefferson Starship and Grand Funk Railroad performed March 18 at Pala Casino, and the bands combined played 20 songs and included three original musicians.

Splitting the two-hour concert between two bands required a focus on some of their most prominent songs. "Now we're just going to play all the hits," said Cathy Richardson, who is the current Jefferson Starship female lead vocalist.

Grace Slick was the original female lead vocalist for Jefferson Starship, which dates back to 1974 and whose original members also included the late Paul Kantner. Their daughter, China, joined the rest of the band onstage March 18 as Jefferson Starship closed out their set with Somebody to Love.

The one original Jefferson Starship member who performed at Pala's Events Center is male lead vocalist David Freiberg. Richardson has been in the band since 2008. Donny Baldwin, the drummer, has been in Jefferson Starship since 2008 and was also in the band from 1981 to 1989. In 1998 current keyboardist Chris Smith joined Jefferson Starship. Jude Gold plays lead guitar and has been in the band since 2012.

Jefferson Starship played nine songs, if the medley with Sara and Nothing's Going to Stop Us Now are considered separate songs. They opened with Find Your Way Back. White Rabbit, which Slick wrote in her Great Society days before joining Kantner in the Jefferson Airplane predecessor of Jefferson Starship, was the sixth song of the Pala Concert and was sandwiched between Miracles and We Built This City. Jane preceded Somebody to Love.

Grand Funk Railroad was formed in 1969. The two original members are bassist Mel Schacher and drummer Don Brewer. The other three members – lead vocalist Max Carl, lead guitarist Bruce Kulick and keyboardist Tim Cashion – joined in 2000.

During the Pala concert Grand Funk Railroad played 11 songs, counting the guitar solo of The Star-Spangled Banner as the sixth song. That was preceded by Loco-Motion, which was one of the band's two #1 hits. The other #1 song, American Band, was the finale. Some Kind of Wonderful peaked at #3 on the charts, and that was also part of the Pala Casino concert.