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Left End brings Spring Thing to Youngstown Amp

Left End, which reunited for a concert last year at Packard Music Hall, is coming back for an encore at Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre.

On May 26, the band will headline Spring Thing, designed to recreate the WHOT/WSRD concerts held at Youngstown’s Idora Park from the late ’60s until the park closed following a fire in 1984.

“We did 13 consecutive Spring Things at Idora Park,” Left End drummer Pat Palombo said. “What if we could bring back the spirit of the Idora Park era? One thing about Spring Thing, it was multiple bands. It couldn’t be a one-band show (like the Packard concert).”

Also performing will be Youngstown’s The HouseBand, and part of its set will feature music by the Michael Stanley Band, which headlined Spring Thing in 1981. Michael Gismondi, who played bass with MSB from 1979 to 1987, is a member of The HouseBand, and the group will be joined by Mahoning Valley natives Gary Markasky, who played guitar with the band from 1978 to 1983, and saxophone player Gary Rohan, who also did shows with MSB.

“That Spring Thing with the Michael Stanley Band was one of the largest ever,” Palombo said. “It was packed.”

Left End will feature the same lineup that played for 1,400 fans at Packard — Tom Figinsky, lead guitar and backing vocals; Jim Puhalla, rhythm guitar; Roy Guerrieri, bass and backing vocals; and Palombo, drums, joined by guitarist / vocalist David Lemasters, who started with the band in 1987, and backup singer Leanne Binder. Taking the place of original lead singer Dennis Sesonsky, known on stage as Dennis T. Menass, is Michael Lawrence of Las Vegas. Sesonsky died in 2014.

Left End was one of the most popular bands in the region in the 1970s. It was signed to Polydor Records, which released Left End’s “Spoiled Rotten” album in 1974, and it toured the country, playing shows with acts ranging from the J. Geils Band to Parliament. Songs such as “Bad Talkin’ Lady,” “Sunshine Girl,” “Ridin’ Again” and “Cyclone Rider ” received extensive local radio play when the band was together.

Thomas John, who was a DJ for WHOT/ WSRD in the original Spring Thing days, is putting together a video featuring the local and national acts that played the concert. Palombo said it will be shown on a 23-foot-wide-by 13-feet-tall video screen during the May 26 concert along with a video of Left End’s 1973 Spring Thing performance.

Organizers also hope to have some of the artifacts from the Idora Park Experience on display at the concert.

If you go …

WHAT: Spring Thing with Left End and Youngstown’s The HouseBand

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. May 26

WHERE: Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre, 300 S. Phelps St., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $29.50 to $75 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at the Covelli Centre’s Southwoods Health box office and through Ticketmaster. An online-only presale runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday with the password: HOGHEAD.

Starting at $2.99/week.

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