Hello, I Love You?

In past years, the San Diego Symphony’s Summer Pops series has included diverse and diverted concerts that featured the music of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. This Thursday, the symphony will back a tribute band that will smoke out edgy music from The Doors.

Conductor/arranger Brent Havens will lead a 50-piece orchestra and a rock band led by the vocals of Randy Jackson (no, dawg, not the “Idol” Randy Jackson). The two-hour gig will feature Doors classics like “Riders on the Storm” and “Light My Fire.” “Just imagine the power and energy of a rock band combined with the soaring grandeur of the symphony at Embarcadero Marina Park South,” says Summer Pops spokesperson Stephen Kougias. Guess you could love them two times.

Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd drummed up more pre-sales than The Doors have, says Kougias. He hopes the current economic bummer doesn’t stop music fans from breaking on through and filling the 2,700-capacity outdoor venue by the bay. You can’t bring alcohol into the venue (beer and wine is sold on-site), but patrons can bring their own food. Given the aura of drug usage that surrounded former Doors lead singer Jim Morrison, I ask Kougias if he expects, you know, more “special brownies” in picnic baskets for this show.

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“Drugs?” ponders Kougias. “No.” Long pause. “That would not be legal or appropriate. This isn’t a 1968 Doors concert at The Sports Arena. Some people might be talking about it, but I haven’t seen any evidence of drugs at these types of pops concerts.”

People are strange, though.

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Ron Donoho is a regular contributor to NBCSandiego.com, editorial director of “Pacific SD” magazine and a contributing editor to sandiego.com. His Web site (sandiegoDTOWN.com) is dedicated to news, sports, culture, happy hours and all things downtown.

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