The Langhorne Summer Concert Series celebrates its 10th anniversary season
By Samantha Bambino
The Times
Guitar chords and drum beats broke through the quiet streets of Langhorne Borough. For the local residents, this was a normal Wednesday night. Rather than annoyance and sound complaints, the music was met with joy and excitement. This was another edition of the Langhorne Summer Concert Series, which takes place every other Wednesday until Labor Day at the Langhorne Community Park on the corner of Bellevue and Maple avenues.
Though the show didn’t start until 7 p.m., residents started trickling into the park around 5:30 p.m. to secure a good spot. Gas House Gorillas was the main act of the night, a rock band hailing from Brooklyn, N.Y. For those who had seen them before, they knew the importance of being right up front.
Every person came prepared with lawn chairs, blankets and mini coolers to hold their refreshments during the excitement of the night. If someone forgot food and drinks, it wasn’t a problem. Both the Langhorne Borough Business Association and American Legion had tables set up selling hot dogs, soda, soft pretzels and commemorative Concert Series T-shirts.
According to Rich Beaumont, concert coordinator and second-term Langhorne Borough Business Association president, this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Summer Concert Series. To celebrate, the theme of this season is “best of,” featuring bands that all played in previous years and were crowd favorites.
The concerts are free to attend, and feature family-friendly bands of all different genres, including several tribute bands. A large amount of funding is raised through the concession tables, but most importantly, through the support of local sponsors. The three platinum sponsors for this season are Woods, The First National Bank & Trust Company of Newtown and Keller Williams Real Estate. A 50/50 raffle also took place with the winner announced half way through the night.
The Gas House Gorillas played for two hours from 7–9 p.m. According to steady concert-goer Chris, who has seen the Gorillas play five times before, last Wednesday was one of the most packed concerts he’s seen at the community park. And it was easy to see why.
The band, consisting of lead vocalist Rick Fink, bassist Crusher Carmean, guitarist Oscar Rodriguez and drummer Dave Moore, kept the energy at an all-time high for the entire concert, despite some power issues and Fink’s microphone shutting off for several minutes while his bandmates continued to play.
“That was the longest baseline in Gorillas history,” he announced to the crowd.
Throughout the night, kids in the audience tossed around a giant beachball while adults danced to new tracks off the band’s album Shutup as well as old favorites like “I Want You To Want Me.” Fink walked through the lawn chairs getting people to sing along, while Carmean pulled his daughter up on stage so the crowd could wish her a happy 14th birthday.
Each Langhorne Summer Concert Series performance begins sharply at 7 p.m. at the Community Park on Bellevue and Maple avenues. The remaining shows for this season are The Launch on July 12, The Mango Men on July 26, 52nd Street Band on Aug. 9 and The Amish Outlaws on Aug. 23. For more information and updates, visit facebook.com/Rich2277. ••
