Jefferson Starship dominated the ‘70s and ‘80s as a West Coast rock band, and will now bring their show to Iowa City, where they will perform at the Englert Theatre on Sept. 21.
The band gained fame with their debut album “Dragon Fly” and their No.1 Billboard album “Red Octopus,” which featured their biggest hit “Miracles.” Both albums will be featured, as will music from their new mini album “Mother of the Sun,” their first original album since 2008.
The performance is a part of the band’s 50th Anniversary Runaway Again Tour.
Cathy Richardson, the band’s current leading lady, sees the tour as honoring the band’s legacy and keeping the sound of Jefferson alive.
“Music is like a time machine, especially music that has been around for 50 years. It can bring memories flooding back.” Richardson said. “This song reminds me of this time in my life, and this song saved me when I was depressed, or whatever it is, music has transformational power.”
The band has gone through a lot of changes since their first album in 1970. Transitioning from the name Jefferson Airplane in 1970, they released the album “Blows Against the Empire,” which was credited to “Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship.” That album laid the groundwork, and by 1974, they were officially Jefferson Starship. Fifty years later, the name is still alive.
Fifty years means 50 years of music. Since the original recordings, the band has gone through major structural changes. David Freiberg, the original bassist, left the band back in 1985. Twenty years later, he rejoined in 2005 and is now the only remaining original member.
“The reason I came back was because I just sat in for one gig, and all of a sudden it was fun again. Since I joined, it’s just kept getting to be more and more fun, until here we are,” Freiberg said.
The band’s current lineup, besides Freiberg, is Richardson, who joined in 2008, Donny Baldwin, a longtime drummer for the band, Chris Smith on keyboard, and Jude Gold, the lead guitarist.
Richardson, particularly, has an interesting perspective coming into this band as a long-time fan and performer.
Before her upcoming performance at the Englert Theatre, she had performed in Iowa City back in the 90s as a solo artist, where she played gigs at Iowa City staples such as Gabe’s and the historic Yacht Club, which closed back in December 2023.
Even with new members and new technology, the members of Jefferson Starship are playing the same songs that made them famous in the 70s. And they’re doing it live.
“We kind of pride ourselves that we, unlike a lot of our contemporaries, don’t use backing tracks,” Richardson said. “We’re actually singing and playing and everybody’s putting their heart and soul into it.”
Richardson and Freiberg said although they’ve been performing for 50 years, they haven’t tried to perfect it. don’t see it like that. Richardson sees the music on the album as a time capsule that is its own being. The more they perform the music, the more they learn from it.
Freiberg recalled what Paul Kantner, one of the original cofounders of Jefferson Starship, who passed in 2016, would say about how their music evolved over the years.
“Paul Kantner always said, ‘Why doesn’t it sound like the record?’ Because we didn’t really know it when we were recording it,” Freiberg said.