Saturday, February 18, 2012

THE BAND CHICAGO



I recently had the opportunity to attend a concert of the band Chicago.  What a show.  Song after song that was played in the concert hall was instantly recognizable.  The horns section was superb.  The band tried to play a song from almost each of their albums.  The last time I heard this band live was during the 1970s.

Chicago formed in 1967 and is one of the longest running pop bands still playing and recording.  Four original band members are still with the band.  Several of the other band members have been part of this group for many years.  The band has the status of having 22 gold, 18 platinum and 8 mulit-platimum albums.  I don't know of any other band achieving these record sales.  They have teamed up with other bands including Earth, Wind and Fire.  We have a DVD of a concert they did with Earth, Wind and Fire.  The concert DVD includes solos for each band and teaming up for a number of songs together.

There were several things that impressed me seeing this group perform live.  After four decades they still have enormous amounts of energy.  They love to play and do play as a tight group.  They had a great time playing, were smiling and having fun.  The audience gave back the energy they were feeling from hearing the music.  The other thing was that there was no intermission, they played for two hours.  I think the band may have felt taking an intermission would have broken the mood and the energy in the room and their own momentum.   If you ever get the chance to see this band play, I would highly recommend it.

On a final note, because of some recent surgery and not knowing how long I could sit on a chair, I took a regular size pillow, in a flowered pillow case, carried in a tote bag, into the concert hall.  I have never taken a pillow to a concert.  No one raised an eyebrow or took a second look from what I could tell.  I used the pillow to help me recline in the chair and lean against the DH.


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