I've been a fan of the band Venice since the 1990s. I think I found out about them when I saw a quote where Crosby called them his favorite musical artist. That's not totally surprising, since they have a soft rock, 1970s sound that's very similar to CSN. They're especially known for their harmony vocals. But although they've released many albums and worked with many famous musicians (including Jackson Browne, who has played with them a bunch of times), they never hit the big time.... except, oddly, in the Netherlands, where they're stars.
The band Venice is very closely tied to the neighborhood of Venice in Los Angeles, as their name shows. As part of that, they've taken part in annual concerts that benefit the music programs of schools in Santa Monica. Each year, Santa Monica High School gets some surprisingly big names to play at their benefit concert, for a mere high school. For instance, in 2011, the year of this concert, not only did David Crosby and Venice play together as the headline act, but the supporting acts were America and Richard Page of the band Mr. Mister. You can read an article about the concert here:
I would have included more of the concert, but the video posted on YouTube only included the set with Crosby and Venice together. Even an earlier set just by Venice wasn't included. America and Richard Page did join in singing on the last song, "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," but you can't really hear them.
Crosby and Venice didn't just play songs where Crosby sang lead vocals. Venice has two lead vocalists, Kip Lennon and Mark Lennon (the four band members are all brothers). So Crosby sang the Crosby-written songs, and either Kip or Mark sang the lead vocals on the other CSN(Y) songs, while Crosby sang his usual harmony parts. In my opinion, the combined vocals often sound better than the CSN live versions. But that's not all. They were backed on some songs by the Santa Monica High School orchestra, plus choir, as well as a local horn section and a local drum corps! So at times there were dozens of people on stage. But they must have practiced, because it sounds very professional and well put together.
It seems that Crosby performed with Venice in this annual concert multiple times. However, there aren't available recordings for most years. However, I also found a soundboard recording of the 2004 show. The first 12 tracks here are from the 2011 one. But they played two different songs at the 2004 show, "Woodstock" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee," so I've added those at the end. They happened to be the last two songs of the 2004 show, so they fit as the last songs here as well.
Just the 2011 portion is 41 minutes long. But with the two extra songs at the end included, the concert is 50 minutes long.
01 talk (David Crosby & Venice)
02 Long Time Gone (David Crosby & Venice)
03 talk (David Crosby & Venice)
04 Guinnevere (David Crosby & Venice)
05 talk (David Crosby & Venice)
06 Wooden Ships (David Crosby & Venice)
07 talk (David Crosby & Venice)
08 Carry On (David Crosby & Venice)
09 talk (David Crosby & Venice)
10 Ohio (David Crosby & Venice)
11 talk (David Crosby & Venice)
12 Suite- Judy Blue Eyes (David Crosby & Venice)
13 Woodstock (David Crosby & Venice)
14 talk (David Crosby & Venice)
15 My Country 'Tis of Thee (David Crosby & Venice)
The cover is a screenshot taken from the YouTube video of the 2011 concert.
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