A classic rock band is coming to Central New York on its 60th anniversary tour.
Vanilla Fudge will perform live at the Capitol Theatre in Rome, N.Y., on April 24. Special guests The Psychometrics will open the concert at 7 p.m.; doors open at 6:15 p.m.
Tickets are currently on sale at tix.com. Prices start at $42.
Vanilla Fudge is a New York-based rock band that released its first album in 1967. The group’s blend of psychedelic, symphonic and hard rock on hits like “Season of the Witch” and “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” is considered a pre-cursor to heavy metal and proto-prog, influencing artists like Deep Purple, Yes, Styx, Led Zeppelin, and Uriah Heep.
“We were the first experimental band to have big commercial success. We were there at the birth of FM radio, and they would play all our efforts to the extreme, so we didn’t have to rely on commercial AM radio. That’s when the real creativity exploded,” co-founding singer-organist Mark Stein told Goldmine magazine in 2019.
The Fudge’s current lineup features original members Stein, Vince Martell (guitar/vocals) and Carmine Appice (drums/vocals), along with bassist Pete Bremy. Original bass player Tim Bogert retired in 2009 and died of cancer in 2021.
Vanilla Fudge, originally known as the Pigeons, released five albums between 1967 and 1970. The group broke up in ‘70 as Bogert and Appice formed a new group, Cactus. Appice, Bogert and Martell reunited in 1999, then the original Fudge lineup reformed in 2005 with Stein.
“There’s a lot of people that don’t think we ultimately got our due, because ultimately Vanilla Fudge is really a cult group,” Stein told Goldmine. “There are a lot of people that think we should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because of our influence. But it’s about how much money you made or how many hits you had. It should be about the influence you had. It’s so political. So many of the people that run that thing are so young, they can’t relate to the history and that’s what it should be about.”