Bread Offers a Big Serving of Nostalgia

A critic had to stifle yawns Friday while Bread delivered its 25th-anniversary world tour to the Orange County Performing Arts Center. But a pun-dit could get a real rise from pop nostalgia’s latest manna-festation.

Bread indeed was made of dough back in the ‘70s, when 10 treacle-slathered slices of its romantic soft-pop balladry reached the Top 20 of the Billboard singles chart. The singer on all those mellow hits was David Gates; his partner, James Griffin, wrote and sang the other half of the Bread loaf--material that tended to have slightly more folk-rock fiber in it.

Gates was both rusty and creaky, and the pun-dit is not just saying so to suit his own kneads. The smooth, soaring voice like buttah of such hit oldies as “Make It With You” and “Baby I’m-A Want You” was replaced by something more the consistency of a thin, brittle wafer. Gates, 57, accepted this loss of vocal leavening good-naturedly, remarking at one point that the group would have written its songs in easier keys had it known it would still be singing them decades later.

Gates did separate wheat from chaff at the end, with solid helpings of “Everything I Own” and “If,” the best ballads in Bread’s basket.

At least Bread hasn’t gone all crusty in its middle age. The members were perfect gentlemen, speaking of one another graciously while sprinkling light humor into between-numbers reminiscing. Bread didn’t have to milk applause; a half-capacity house of about 1,850 lavished it eagerly. Where there’s an ear for nostalgia and corn, Bread apparently remains the staff of life.