Franklin Park Band

The final show of Franklin Park’s 2022 season was again at historic Lake Superior Theater in Marquette.  The sold out (with a waiting list!) crowd was again very knowledgeable of the great 60s music we play and very warm and appreciative of our performance.  We love playing at LST and were happy to donate our services to this great venue. 

Franklin Park loves Marquette, too.  The UP’s queen city offers a vibrant downtown, two fine breweries (BlackRock’s and Ore Docks), fresh whitefish caught that morning for cooking, memorable hiking in every direction and boating on Lake Superior.  FP loves staying at the Hewitt Onion House Manor (Airbnb), a circa 1890 luxurious house with a large and modern kitchen great for cooking that fresh caught whitefish.  It’s the perfect house for a large group. 

Here’s a few short videos of the show at LST:

With the Beach Boys 60's music show there the night before, the Meijer Gardens crowd was down some in size but certainly not in enthusiasm.  We loved the many folks singing along with our 60's music classics.  And their cheering for our drummer Tom Jones after his drum solo on the Beatles Abbey Road trilogy was wonderful.  As MC Ralston Bowles said "Ringo would be proud".  

Thank you to photographer and fan Terry Zweering for her many great photos of the show.  Here's a couple:

Franklin Park's recent second show at Holland's Kollen Park reminded us of the very nice video the City of Holland did a year ago in interviewing our very humble front man, Bernie (link below).  

And the video header picture shows our very talented lead guitarist, John A, putting down his guitar and playing the claves on "And I Love Her".  Claves are known as wood blocks to most of us (and are not small cows :>)

Franklin Park played to a big crowd on a beautiful evening at Kollen Park on Lake Macatawa in our home town of Holland.  Young and old enjoyed the great sounds of the 60s.  It was a great way to start the long July 4th weekend.

Special thanks to Dekkm Productions (Richie Dekker) for providing us with their professional sound system and sound engineers and to the City of Holland which made significant electrical improvements to the historic bandshell at Kollen Park (which we all played on, and dreamed on, as children growing up in Holland). 

It took 12 years after Franklin Park reunited, but we finally found some very old photos of Franklin Park's performance at the State Battle of the Bands, held at Muskegon's LC Walker Arena in May, 1969.  As these photos illustrate, people change in 53 years.  A lot!

Left to right across the stage looking at photos:

Larry Lewis, keyboard (at very far left)

Mike (Mondo) Reid, guitar

Tom Jones, drums

Bernie Rosendahl, vocals/tambourine

John Arendshorst, guitar

Jim Lievense, bass guitar

The guys were excited to learn yesterday that our 1960s music show is confirmed at Holland's beautiful Kollen Park, on the shores of Lake Macatawa.  The great music of the 60s got the 800-person crowd off their chairs, on their feet and dancing last summer.  Join us on July 1 and do it again this year!  Special thanks to the City of Holland's Kemri Hilton for working with us on the date of the show and for her confidence in Franklin Park.

Franklin Park was very excited to learn, on the same day (!), that both Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park and historic Lake Superior Theater have confirmed Franklin Park shows for August, 2022.  

See and hear our great 60s music on August 16 at Frederik Meijer Gardens' Tuesday Evening Music Club and on August 25 in Marquette (it's worth the trip--Marquette is THE place to visit in Michigan's UP with great restaurants and breweries, on Lake Superior with great hiking, and Pictured Rocks NP just an hour away.  Be there!)

Franklin Park's last performance of Summer 2021 was very fun.  Lake Superior Theatre, on the harbor in Marquette, is a historic boathouse converted each summer for summer stock stage plays and for the first time ever, a rock and roll band.

The sold out audience was very knowledgeable about our great 60s music, applauding every solo and even giving a shout out to our always dependable, always great but never flashy drummer, Tom Jones.  And it was certainly time to finally play in the adopted (in 1971!) home town of our very humble front man, Bernie Rosendahl.  We are sure that Bernie appreciated not having to make the 900-mile roundtrip to West Michigan for a Franklin Park show.

One other note--Marquette is a wonderful place to visit.  The Hewitt Onion Tower (airbnb), the food at Vango's and the Delft and the beer at Blackrocks and Ore Dock were among the highlights.  And our bass guitarist Jim L was brave enough to jump off the real black rocks into pristine and chilly Lake Superior.

              (L to R)                 Mike R,                Jim L,           Bernie R,  Tom J,       Mike J,       John A

                                                                 "Rock" Stars ?

 (L to R) Mike R, John A, Tom J, Mike J, Jim L, Bernie R

The band returned to its roots, Holland, MI, for a show at beautiful Kollen Park on Lake Macatawa, before a big crowd that stayed to the end.  Much fun for an oldies band to return to a park that was the scene of teen hijinks so many years ago.  

The City of Holland did a nice interview with our very humble front man, Bernie.  Link below:

City of Holland Video Interview

Franklin Park performed in front of an enthusiastic audience of 1,751 live, in-person (!) people on July 13 as part of the Frederik Meijer Gardens  & Sculpture Park's Tuesday Evening Music Club series.  It was great experience to be able to do our full 2-set show in West Michigan's premiere outdoor music theatre.  We are very grateful to Meijer Gardens and its TEMC coordinator, Ted Bufkin, for their faith in us and in the great music of the '60s.

And after all our 2020 gigs were cancelled, it was so much fun to see a big crowd of real live people enjoying great music. 

Video of our Set 2 is available on the "Audition Tape" page of this website.