Review: Meet the most underrated band in Bay Area rock music history

We can thank Will Ferrell for helping reignite career of Pablo Cruise, the yacht rock act that is still wowing fans 50 years after getting its start.

Amid all the incredible musicianship, great lyrical work and bounty of topnotch material on display at the Guild Theatre on Thursday (May 9), one thing became increasingly clear:

Pablo Cruise is the most underrated band in Bay Area music history.

The Sausalito-born group proved to be the complete package during its approximately 90-minute set at the lovely Menlo Park venue, solidly delivering 14 songs that appealed to listeners in various ways. There were the concise, hook-driven hits as well as other shiny pop-rock nuggets that should have been a.m. radio smashes back in the ’70s. There were also folksy numbers, jammed-out rockers and plenty of mesmerizing instrumental interludes.

And all of it was delivered by a band of first-rate players — founding members Cory Lerios on keyboards and David Jenkins on vocals and guitar as well as bassist Larry Antonino, drummer Sergio Gonzalez and vocalist Robbie Wyckoff.

Yet, the band rarely gets the credit for those kinds of things. Instead, many think of the group as a late ’70s flash in the pan with two, maybe three, songs you might want to hear and a career that was resurrected in large part due to Will Ferrell wearing a Pablo Cruise shirt in the 2008 comedy “Step Brothers.”

And none of that could be further from the truth (well, except for the Ferrell part). The band actually has a strong and deep songbook, built from seven albums that were released from 1975 to 1983.

Following a well-received opening set from Palo Alto bluesman AJ Crawdaddy (who once was a member of Pablo Cruise), the lights dimmed and a fun seven-minute video — covering the career arch of Pablo Cruise — was shown to the audience. (FYI: The video did touch upon the Ferrell factor.)

Then the five-piece outfit took the stage and opened with a charged-up version of “Worlds Away,” the title track to Pablo Cruise’s platinum-plus-selling fourth album from 1978. It was straight-up pop-rock joy — the kind that Journey and Toto fans would certainly appreciate — and performed with both great flare and meticulous care.

It was the first of many times in the evening when Jenkins would cause jaws to drop with his mighty guitar work. His playing, which has always provided the teeth to Pablo Cruise’s soft-rock hits and other recordings, has even more bite in concert than in the studio.

From there, the band peddled some fine yacht rock — the genre that championed smooth a.m. radio hits of the ’70s and early ’80s — as it sailed on with a pair of gorgeous ballads, “Cool Love” (from 1981’s “Reflector”) and “Raging Fire” (from 1977’s platinum-selling smash “A Place in the Sun”).

The latter was highlighted by incredible harmony vocal work and was so beautiful that it could have been a Crosby, Stills & Nash number. And if it had indeed been a CSN tune, it would have made it on their greatest hits album.

Next up was “Atlanta June,” which, believe it or not, was the original A-side to the single that gave the band it’s huge “Whatcha Gonna Do?” hit. And while that song failed to make it on the charts, it was one of the absolute highlights of this concert as it nicely showcased the powerful vocals of Wyckoff (who spent years singing with Roger Waters on tour).

Turning the calendar on “Atlanta June,” four-fifths of the band left the stage and Jenkins performed “Livin’ Inside of Your Love,” a mesmerizing solo acoustic folk-pop offering, filled with crafty and endearing lyrics, which was deeply reminiscent of the late-great John Prine. (And that’s about as big a compliment as we can give any folk-pop tune.)

Then Lerios — who grew up in Palo Alto, a stone’s throw (or so) away from the Guild  — took the stage and offered up a funny counterpoint to Jenkin’s softly romantic number with his own “I Get Tired Just Thinking of You.”

Humor was a huge part of the night, as Lerios and Jenkins playfully bickered and joked throughout the evening. The person sitting next to me compared the duo to the Smothers Brothers, a reference that probably says a lot about the age of both the band and their audience.

Lerios, for example, would draw big laughs when he discussed why he split ways with Jenkins in the ’80s, leading to the band’s breakup.

“We weren’t getting along very well,” he said, before adding with solid deadpan delivery and a sideways glance at Jenkins. “We still don’t.”

There was also a fun self-effacing zinger that came during the band member introductions, after Wyckoff explained how, before he got the call to join Pablo Cruise, he used to fly in private jets around the globe while touring with Roger Waters.

“After that phone call, I had to ask Robby, ‘Have you ever flown Southwest?'” Lerios joked of Pablo Cruise’s apparent means of air travel these days.

Lerios, however, probably isn’t hurting for money one bit. After all, he went on to have a very successful career in composing for TV and film after Pablo Cruise called it quits in the ’80s. His most notable work in that realm came when he landed the gig to do the music for “Baywatch” — and, as a reminder of such to fans, the band performed that TV show’s theme during the Guild concert.

The show reached another high point with the incredible jam through “Zero to Sixty in Five,” a standout from 1976’s “Lifeline” album that thoroughly reminded us of the great instrumental numbers that the group has recorded through the years. (I actually wish the band had played more instrumental songs — especially “El Verano” from “A Place in the Sun” and the 12-minute-plus “Ocean Breeze” from the first album.)

From there, it was hit city as Pablo cruised through the favorites “Don’t Want to Live Without It,” “I Go to Rio” and, of course, the dual smashes “Love Will Find a Way” and “Whatcha Gonna Do?”

It was a superb showing by a group that should be mentioned way more frequently whenever the topic of best Bay Area bands comes up.

Pablo Cruise plays tonight (Friday, May 10) at the Mystic Theatre in Petaluma. For more information, visit pablocruise.com/shows.

Setlist:

1. “Worlds Away”
2. “Cool Love”
3. “Raging Fire”
4. “Atlanta June”
5. “Livin’ Inside of Your Love”
6. “I Get Tired Just Thinking of You”
7. “A Place in the Sun”
8. “Will You, Won’t You”
9. “Baywatch” theme
10. “Zero to Sixty in Five”
11. “Don’t Want to Live Without It”
12. “I Go to Rio”
13. “Love Will Find a Way”
14. “Whatcha Gonna Do?”