KBC Band Concert

KBC, the band that featured Jefferson Airplane founding member Paul Kantner, Marty Balin and Jack Casady, had been together and touring for two years when they captured this show in April, 1987 at New York’s trendy Ritz Theater. Thus, the band is incredibly tight (as compared to their earlier show from November…entire summary

Paul Kantner - vocals, guitar
Marty Balin - vocals
Jack Cassady - bass
Mark Aguilar - lead guitar, vocals
Keith Crossman - sax, vocals
Tim Gorman - keyboards
Darrell Verdusco - drums, vocals

KBC, the band that featured Jefferson Airplane founding member Paul Kantner, Marty Balin and Jack Casady, had been together and touring for two years when they captured this show in April, 1987 at New York’s trendy Ritz Theater. Thus, the band is incredibly tight (as compared to their earlier show from November 1985, also available on Wolfgang’s Vault). Still, this show, and KBC as a band, has little to do musically with the psychedelic ‘60s acts from which it came. The band was living deeply under the influence of the current MTV playlist from 1987.

The new KBC songs are well crafted pop tracks - but are a stretch from what the band was doing when they were the Airplane or the ‘70s Starship. Only on the single, "It’s Not You, It’s Not Me" does the newer KBC material seem to have any real legs. To their credit, the band was smart enough to add enough crowd pleasers throughout the set, and deliver such popular classics as "Ride The Tiger,” and "The Girl With The Hungry Eyes” from Starship and "Plastic Fantastic Lover” and "It’s No Secret” from the early Jefferson Airplane albums.

After the KBC released and toured for their debut album, the band dissipated, having been together for just about two years. The three core members would eventually marry back up with other Airplane personnel for a lackluster reunion in 1989. At the end of the tour, the others wanted to keep Jefferson Airplane going for a while, but Slick opted to retire to a life of painting. Kantner then started performing in the 1990s in a band he assembled and called Jefferson Starship that contained none of the other original members. Since then, there have been several versions of both Paul Kantner’s Jefferson Starship and co-lead singer Mickey Thomas’ Starship, and as a result, some of the original Airplane members have been involved in a myriad of lawsuits over rights to the names.

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