The Love Czars (Love tribute)

Members of The Low Czars, an undersung and prodigiously talented rock cover band, are putting together a special show to commemorate the release of Love’s Forever Changes. As the Love Czars, they have convened on special occasions to revive the ‘60s Los Angeles band’s classics, and this show promises to be one of the most ambitious efforts yet, with the addition of Chris Vance (Grotto) on vocals, plus horn and string players. The Congregation, an energetic rock and soul band from Chicago, will open and include a tribute to Daptone star Charles Bradley, who died on Sept. 23.

press release: 1960s Los Angeles legends Love, led by Arthur Lee and Bryan MacLean, may have never really broke out of their hometown, but time has proven their music to be some of the most acclaimed sounds from a decade full of innovation. Only a rumor on pop radio at the time, the group’s best remembered songs to Top 40 listeners are the frenetic proto-punk of “7 and 7 Is” (#33) and a rocked-up cover of the Bacharach-David song “My Little Red Book” (#52). But chart success ain’t everything, kids.

Along with a solid self-titled debut, the original incarnation of Love also released the spaced-out folk-psych-rock of Da Capo (both 1966) and one final magnum opus: Forever Changes, in November 1967. The album’s songs are by turns mysterious, romantic, paranoid, darkly humorous, baroque, threatening and mystical, but above all endlessly fascinating. Taken as a whole, and with the hindsight of what followed, it was a harbinger of the quick ending of the hippie dream. It was also essentially the end of Love, as the album disappeared quickly in the U.S. (but was a U.K. hit), at least partly because the band refused to tour. MacLean soon left, and Lee ditched the rest of the band but kept the name, making much more worthwhile music but mostly in a different vein.

It is the endlessly fascinating part of the music of Love where the Love Czars come in. These ardent Love fans have periodically convened over the past decade-plus to bring the group’s music to Madison concertgoers, anchored by a quartet of members drawn from the Low Czars. The addition on vocals of Chris Vance (most recently of Grotto and the Radio Birdman tribute band Yeh-Hup) was the final piece of the puzzle.

For this show marking the 50th anniversary of the release of Forever Changes, the group will add some extra players to recreate the strings and horns which help create the album’s unique musical palette. Who are they? Well, we have to leave something as a surprise.

The evening will kick off with an opening set by Chicago’s rockin’ soul kingpins The Congregation. Their set will include a tribute to the “Screaming Eagle of Soul,” Charles Bradley, who lost his battle with cancer on Sept. 23. The Congregation’s website offers an apt description of their sound: “Classic soul meets rock & roll in this dynamic eight-piece collective from Chicago. The Congregation features Gina Bloom, a singer whose raw and powerful vocals are underscored by Charlie Wayne’s dynamic guitar riffs, the band’s rock and soul rhythm section and the lively call and response of a three-piece horn section. When it comes to the songwriting, you won’t find any sugarcoated love songs here–you’ll get a little bit of longing and a whole lot of wronging.”