Yacht Rock Revue at Pier 17

At a certain point, the music alternately known as “adult contemporary” or “easy listening” got rebranded, for some inexplicable reason, as “yacht rock.” I discovered this by accident as I was watching PBS one evening and saw a concert by Yacht Rock Revue, a band that mainly covers songs from the late ’70s and early ’80s. I was impressed by their ability to replicate the musical and vocal arrangements of some of my favorite songs and there was a certain kitschy charm to their Huk-a-Poo shirts, hip-hugger bell bottoms and aviator sunglasses.

When I saw them perform tonight at Pier 17, Nicholas Niespodziani, one of their singers, had a cold, which is unfortunate because he has a good voice and sang most of the songs in the PBS concert. Luckily, they have several other singers (most notably Peter Olson) who were able to fill in.

I don’t know if they have a deep repertoire for emergencies like this or they had to rejigger their set list at the last minute, but there were still a few songs I recognized from their PBS show. One stand-out was Sade’s “Smooth Operator.” Kourtney Jackson does great justice to Sade’s vocals and the saxophone player, David B. Freeman, nailed the sax part. Freeman was also featured on another showstopper, Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street.” The even performed ELO’s “Don’t Bring Me Down,” which was great since I missed ELO when they played at Madison Square Garden this week. (I suppose “yacht rock” is a loose organizing principal. Some of their songs might qualify as “classic rock.”)

Yacht Rock Revue may be the world’s best cover band. They do have a few original songs but, as they say, just play the hits—or, in this case, other people’s hits.