On a beautiful late summer night in downtown Ojai, The Zombies took to the Libbey Bowl stage and proved to the fans that it was, indeed, the time of the season. Starting off with the classic 1965 song "I Love You," written by The Zombies' early bassist Chris White and featuring a chorus and verse which are inverted, this pathos-inducing song chronicles the frustrations of a young man who can't bring himself to tell the one he loves how he feels. Then the band covered Phillip Mitchell's R&B standard "Can't Nobody Love You," which appeared on its 1965 debut album, Begin Here. Rod Argent's awesome "I Want You Back Again" was up next -- originally a 1965 single, the band elected to re-record it on its latest album, Still Got That Hunger, upon hearing Tom Petty's groovy cover version. This was followed by a convincing version of "Going Out Of My Head" -- originally a number 6 Billboard hit for Little Anthony & The Imperials in 1965. The band continued by focusing on two tracks off of the new album, "Moving On," and "Edge of the Rainbow,” which showed that Argent's songwriting chops and keyboard playing are still top-notch, and Colin Blunstone can still sing brilliantly and hit the high notes.
Colin then gave a brief speech about how after The Zombies originally broke up in December 1967, Rod, and Jim Rodford (Rod's cousin who joined him in his post-Zombies band, Argent, in 1969, before later becoming The Kinks' bassist in 1978), played with Blunstone on his early solo albums. Then the boys launched into Russ Ballard's beautiful ballad "I Don't Believe In Miracles," which Colin had originally hauntingly sung on his second solo album, 1972's Ennismore.
Following that, Argent introduced the Odessey and Oracle segment of the show, mentioning how Paul Weller (of The Jam and Style Council fame) and Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) both champion the 1968 psychedelic classic album to this day. The four gems revealed were: "Care of Cell 44," (Argent's ode to a person writing a letter to their partner who is awaiting release from prison) -- with its wonderfully upbeat Beach Boys-esque harmonies; White's triumphant "This Will Be Our Year;" "I Want Her, She Wants Me" -- on which Rod sang lead vocals; and The Zombies' universally known and loved number, "Time of the Season" -- which got some of the audience joyously dancing up front in the pit.