Article Text
Collective Delusion will bring its wide-ranging classic rock set to Fort Hunt Park during Father’s Day weekend, adding another local performance to a schedule its members balance with demanding professional careers.
The Mount Vernon-based cover band is set to play Saturday evening as part of the National Park Service’s concert series. Its playlist stretches across several decades, with songs associated with the Beatles, Sheryl Crow, Foo Fighters, Adele, Lady Gaga and the Rolling Stones, including “Beast of Burden.”
Guitarist and vocalist Keith Barritt said the group sticks to rock ’n’ roll, leaving punk and rap out of its sets.
Three members are lawyers away from the stage. Barritt practices law, bassist Bill Berridge is a patent attorney, and vocalist Cecilia Closs runs her own practice. The lineup also includes guitarist and vocalist Steve Westphal, drummer Ji Jung, and vocalists Blair Bennett and Closs.
Barritt calls the band’s two female lead singers its “secret weapon,” crediting them with shaping both its sound and stage presence.
One milestone came in 2012, when Collective Delusion performed at a parent-teacher talent show at West Potomac High School. The group was the only parent act to participate. Barritt’s son David was then a senior at the school; he later attended college and continued the family tradition by graduating from law school on Saturday, May 17.
Collective Delusion has become a regular presence at the Old Dominion Boat Club in Old Town and has also performed at the Mount Vernon Yacht Club, Belle Haven Country Club, the Electric Palm in Woodbridge and the Wharf Stage in Washington. The band played at a Washington porchfest on April 26.
Additional summer appearances are scheduled at Red Rocks Tequila in Centreville and on the Ellipse at the Fairfax County Government Center.