ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Hard Act to Follow

No doubt, there are many in Dr. Howard Fishbein’s generation who have found themselves singing along with the Rolling Stones while driving down the freeway. Few have gone beyond mere imagination to experience what this Orange County family doctor and some fellow musicians did last weekend.

In the ultimate 1960s fantasy come true, Dr. Rock, Fishbein’s rock group, performed at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre before about 900 friends, colleagues and patients. It was a present for Fishbein’s 39th birthday arranged by his wife, who said that her husband was approaching 40-something with great trepidation and that performing on stage was something he wanted “more than anything.”

Most of the group members seemed to walk right out of the cast of “The Big Chill”: Dr. Rock’s 43-year-old drummer is a podiatrist who wondered before the concert whether he’d be called up in the Army Reserves; the group’s lead guitarist and sax player is a 39-year-old graphic artist; the rhythm guitarist is 40 and a project administrator for an engineering company.

A dream come true, guys? “It’s only for tonight,” one of them said. “We turn back into pumpkins tomorrow.”

Well, this Cinderella story hardly would have been complete without the right encore. What better choice for the yelling crowd than the Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”? It was a reminder that even if not all baby-boomers grew up to be rock stars, they could, to paraphrase Mick Jagger, at least get what they need.