Review: Tommy James and the Shondells remain easy to love during Strawberry Festival set

Psych-rock pioneer Tommy James actually started a mob when he came out into the Florida Strawberry Festival audience last Thursday afternoon. And not the kind of mob that stole millions of dollars worth of royalties from him as a young man, either.

At what we thought was the end of “Mony Mony,” the 75-year-old—who allegedly outsold The Beatles in the late ‘60s—walked offstage, entered the uncovered floor section, and the boomer-comprised crowd suddenly ditched the canes and walkers, and summoned the energy of the paparazzi and autograph seekers.

With the six Shondells circa 2023 still playing up on the duly shaded Wish Farms Soundstage, selfies were taken with James—sporting a full head of long, jet-black hair, and donning a white button-down with an unbuttoned black and red paisley vest—and albums in all formats, his autobiography, and other relics relating to his storied career were shoved in his face, and eventually graced with his ol’ Hancock.

But you know what? He loved every second of his 10 minutes mingling.

Mr. “Hanky Panky” now lives in upstate New Jersey, and let’s get real: If you’re not a die-hard fan, he’s not facially distinctive. So, other than his in-town regulars that have a shred of respect for privacy, he’s probably able to go grocery shopping without being mobbed for autographs and selfies at home.

But before the madness unfolded, James dominated the stage with his timeless psychedelic anthems and unmatched tenor for 80 minutes. He opened with back-to-back, untransposed renditions of “Draggin’ The Line” and “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” both of which he worked out during soundcheck earlier in the afternoon. The original harmonies on the latter were still there, but seemed a bit overshadowed by James’ lead vocals, as opposed to on the original recording where both were in perfect sync.

“The last time we played the Strawberry Festival was like, the last gig we did before they shut the country down with COVID, right?” James recalled. “I researched that.”

He wasn’t wrong, either: Him and the Shondells performed on the second day of the 2020 version of Strawberry Festival, the same year that Reba McEntire—now in venues like Amalie Arena—and Chubby Checker played the barn. “I could get really sick of strawberries. I mean, we had a whole bunch of them,” he jokingly added.
After switching his beige Fender Jazzmaster for a black acoustic guitar for one song only, Tommy continued on with banter about how there’s a film adaption of his autobiography “Me, the Mob, and the Music” in the works, and how it’s going to cover the band’s connections to the mob through Roulette Records (shouldn’t that name have been the first clue?) “We had to pretend we didn’t see a lot of the stuff we saw,” he admitted.

While no one knows for sure whether or not the film is going to be another mob musical at all—ala “Jersey Boys”—Tommy announced that he had recorded, and was about to perform, an acoustic version of “I Think We’re Alone Now,” which would roll over the credits of the film.

The rest of James’ set was an hallucinatory trip through the Shondells’ greatest hits, performed in mostly original keys, no less, and clad in keyboard work from Benny Harrison and Mike DiMeo. The instrumental middle of “Crimson and Clover” was significantly shorter than it was 55 years ago, but the vocal distortion in the song’s last 45-or-so-seconds still popped up. “Ball of Fire”—co-written by Donna Summer widower Bruce Sudano in the late ‘60s—would segue into “Tighter, Tighter,” the Bob King-Tommy James tune that made Alive N Kickin’ one-hit wonders.

And while we love an acoustic rendition, if you think the autograph mob was madness, I can’t imagine how bad the reaction would have been if James didn’t perform the original, electric version of “I Think We’re Alone Now,” famously covered by Tiffany and parodied by “Weird Al” Yankovic. Same goes for “Mony Mony,” which ended James’ main set, and had a refrain that ended his encore, which featured “Sweet Cherry Wine” and “Mirage.”

So much for “children behave,” huh?