Paul Kantner - vocals, guitar; Marty Balin - vocals; Jack Casady - bass; Mark Aguilar - lead guitar, vocals; Keith Crossman - sax, vocals; Tim Gorman - keyboards; Darrell Verdusco - drums, vocals
After founding member Paul Kantner parted ways with Jefferson Starship, he contemplated another solo album and finally went out under his own name. However, at the same time, two other Jefferson Airplane founding members, Marty Balin and Jack Casady, were kicking around looking for the next project to dive into. Balin had been out of the Airplane/Starship fold since 1980 and had embarked on a solo career; and Casady had remained active with his life-long musical partner, Jorma Kaukonen, and their joint Hot Tuna project, but he too was ready for a change.
Unable to do a proper Jefferson Airplane reunion because Grace Slick was still committed to Starship and Kaukonen had launched his own solo career, the three members simply formed the next best thing: KBC Band. Signed by Clive Davis to his Arista Records imprint, KBC picked up where the mid-'70s Starship left off (when Kantner and Balin were still the main creative force in the group). And while all these "musical chairs" exercises can be daunting, KBC had some decent material on the lone album they released in 1987 (eighteen months after this show was captured at San Francisco's legendary Fillmore Auditorium). The main "problem" with that album is that much of the production values and song arrangements remain hopelessly cemented in the age of MTV.
With the revised Starship as a model (who had successfully crossed over to pop radio with a string of chart toppers such as "We Built This City" and "Sara"), KBC also tried to go the pop, mainstream radio route. Probably at the suggestion of Davis, they created an album of pop songs about unrequited love. From the core of the band that gave us such political anthems as "Volunteers Of America" and "Wooden Ships," the music of KBC was certainly a softer approach compared to the glory of the Airplane in the '60s.
Speaking of the Airplane in the '60s, the band does close the show with "Plastic Fantastic Lover," originally made famous on Surrealistic Pillow, the album that broke that legendary band. It was early in 1965 when Kantner and Balin were trying to survive as acoustic coffee house performers. They eventually met and struck up a friendship and decided to form a band. When they connected with Jorma Kaukonen on guitar and Jack Casady on bass, they began rehearsing, and after getting female vocalist Signe Anderson on board, they debuted in San Francisco as the Jefferson Airplane. After the release of their first album on RCA, Anderson left to have a baby, and she was replaced by an ex-model and singer named Grace Slick. Slick brought with her two songs from her previous band, the Great Society, called "White Rabbit" and "Somebody To Love."
The first album with Slick was called Surrealistic Pillow, and the two aforementioned songs that Slick brought in became huge worldwide hits. The Airplane soon embraced the Summer of Love and they spearheaded the psychedelic music movement. After Kantner, Balin and Casady finished their recording and touring obligations for KBC, they eventually did maneuver a full-fledged Jefferson Airplane reunion in 1989 and 1990 before splintering again.