Kings Town Tenors rock Bellrock Hall

Craig Bakay | May 10, 2017

Well, they weren’t Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and the other guy, but in this case, that turned out to be a good thing.

“We’re a classic rock group that does some tenor stuff,” said Jack (The Happy Chef) Francis, one of the three lead singers of The Kings Town Tenors, who brought their brand of ‘classic’ rock to Bellrock Hall last Friday night.

They did do Puccini’s Nessun dorma (None shall sleep) from the opera Turandot (“to prove we have some chops in that area”) but mostly it was ‘stuff’ like CCR’s Have You Ever Seen the Rain, Jim Croce’s Bad, Bad Leroy Brown and Leonard Cohen’s Bird on the Wire.

Along with Tim Torgersen and Danny Young, and backed by Tony Negus on keys and acoustic guitar, Doug Smith on drums, Chris Petersen on bass and Brandon Amey on guitar, (think Three Dog Night setup) the Tenors rolled out an evening of familiar tunes and endless banter, most of which was courtesy of Francis.

For example, while singing and dancing was encouraged, when they did Michael Buble’s Home, Francis quipped “If you like singing along  . . . don’t.”

The Tenors first got together about six years ago during a Kingston production of The King and I, which featured Torgeersen in the title role.

“We are really baritones with a couple of extra notes,” Francis said. “Except for Danny.

“He’s a tenor’s tenor who can do an awesome falsetto.”

It was an interesting evening made even more so by Francis’s alter ego — Jack The Happy Chef.

As patrons were filing in before the music, they were offered a variety of canapes and sweets including skewers of chicken, spanakopita, Bailey’s espresso brownies and meatballs with a sauce like nothing you’ve ever tasted before.

Bellrock Hall’s next musical offering is the LaSalle Causeway Swing Band May 28 at 2 p.m.