The Large Flowerheads to make '60s bloom at Coca-Cola Park concert

• The Large Flowerheads will perform at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, on the field at Allentown's Coca-Cola Park
• Tickets, at $12 each, are available on the Lehigh Valley IronPigs website. They will be $15 at the gate. Parking will be free
• The band said it's rehearsing for a two-hour show of 1960s songs

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Moe Jerant, drummer for the Lehigh Valley cover band The Large Flowerheads, says there's just something special about 1960s music.

“It really has this universal appeal because it’s so darn happy," Jerant said.

That happy music — hits by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Mamas & The Papas and many lesser-known acts — will be what The Large Flowerheads plays Saturday when it plays just the second headline concert in a dozen years, and fourth overall, at Allentown's Coca-Cola Park.

They'll join a show by Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp; one by country stars Big & Rich; and last year's offering of area cover band Go Go Gadget as acts that have headlined the stadium.

The Large Flowerheads will perform on a stage erected near home plate on the stadium field at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7. General-admission seating will be in the stadium bowl, on blankets on the field or in lawn chairs in designated areas.

Tickets, at $12 each, are available on the Lehigh Valley IronPigs website. They will be $15 at the gate.

There will be multiple concession stands selling food, soft drinks and alcohol, and parking for the event will be free.

Playing 1960s music has made The Large Flowerheads one of the most popular bands in the Lehigh Valley.

For nine straight years, the band was chosen Best Band/Duo at the former Lehigh Valley Music Awards. It has played at area venues such as Penn's Peak near Jim Thorpe, Sellersville Theater and many regional fairs and festivals including Allentown's Mayfair and Bethlehem's Musikfest.

It's also opened for actual 1960s musical legends such as The Large Flowerheads has opened for some real music legends Peter Noone & Herman's Hermits, 5th Dimension, The Guess Who and The Vogues.

“We want to keep people engaged," Jerant said. "We walk you through a bunch of different emotions and energetic feeling as we go through the set."

An early version goes off track

Jerant said The Large Flowerheads had its first turn after she, and vocalist/guitarists Greg Geist and Billy Trexler were in another band in the mid-1990s that broke up.

"Greg and Billy and I were just hanging out and talking, and we decided to put The Flowerheads together," she said — choosing to play 1960s music because they all enjoyed it, but it also "because there was nobody in the area that was doing it, and I hate to say it like this, but it was ripe for picking."

That lineup played for six or seven years, but got off track, Jerant said.

"We played for about six or seven years," she said. "We started out doing ‘60s, and the Seattle stuff started — like all the grunge bands that were happening up there.

“So we started doing that and we started morphing into heavier stuff. [And] the band went its way."

Jerant said that version of The Large Flowerheads "did everything we weren’t supposed to do in seven or eight years.

“Somebody told me that when you play in a local cover band, your shelf life is about four or maybe five years. And we got seven, maybe eight years out of the band.

“They told me is you’re not going to be able to do it unless you travel. We never traveled.

“So that went its way."

Stephanie Sigafoos

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LehighValleyNews.com

A new mindset, and success

Jerant said The Large Flowerheads were apart for about 10 years, during which she and Geist played in a Celtic band.

But in September 2008, The Large Flowerheads did a reunion show at The Ice House in Bethlehem that sold out its 220-person capacity.

“So that was our launch, and that was almost 15 years ago and every year, we just try to keep upping the game,” she said.

In addition to making it "a very clear point to just do ‘60s," Jerant said, “One of the things that we addressed was, what we do on stage and how we look. So that got to be serious business."

Jerant said bassist Colleen Zajacek prompted the band to work with performance methodology coach Tom Jackson, who "coaches like A-list performers and bands for how to be on stage, how to move, how to present a show."

Jerant said, “The first mindset is, ‘Hey, check me out. I’m a musician, I’m in this great band with my friends. We have a really great time playing. Why don’t you come out and see us?'

"So that’s mindset Number 1, and that took us to a particular level.

“And when we started looking at ourselves on film, like all the pro ball teams do, going, ‘Oh, this is great, we sound good. The vocals are cool. But we’re so freaking boring.

“We decided that we were boring and like everybody else," she said with a laugh. "It’s a difference in mindset. That took us a couple years to iron out, but now it’s totally in play for everything we do."

Part of that staging methodology, she said, "is to move, which we do, and it’s also to get the audience involved. And we do that like crazy. You almost have no choice but to participate when you’re at one of our shows.

“And, of course, people are dancing and having a great time.”

Music reaching new generations

Now, Jerant said, "One of the consistent comments people have, is ‘Great show, very entertaining,' things like that. 'Had a really good time.'"

That ability to engage people apparently was part of why Coca-Cola Park asked the band to perform a concert.

The Large Flowerheads have performed before at the park — on the park plaza inside its gates — and approached it saying, "It would be fun to have you guys here for a concert], and we were, ‘Uh, what?’ And jumped at the chance,” Jerant said.

“It’s a big deal for us," she said. "They came to us and asked us to do it. That, for me, is a complement of the highest order, because they trust us enough to do a really good job and to get as many people in the park as possible. And that’s the game right there."

Jerant said another phenomenon the band has with its 1960s playlist is, "We have is the music is actually getting down to younger generations.

"Because all the grandparents who grew up with that are playing that kind of music. They played it for their kids, so we have people who are grandparent age who love it, we have people kids ages that love it, and now we have grandchildren age that love it, too.

“We have kids who come out to the show, and they know all the lyrics to all the songs.”

Jerant said the band is rehearsing to make for a show that will last "two hours or really close to it."

"We’re rehearsing to make this the biggest and the best it can be."