In a day and age when old rock bands have made their money and have faded out into the sunset on some deserted beach with a cocktail in the hand, it is nice to see some of them come back to the sunrise and play once again. 80’s perennial rock balladeers, Reo Speedwagon is one such band. Long gone are the 40,000 seat capacity stadium filled concerts. Replace now with smaller 2000 seat capacity venues for a more intimate performance.
From start to finish Reo Speedwagon had the audience eating out of the palm of their hands. With power ballads like “Take It on the Run,” and “Can’t Fight The Feeling” the audience ate it up. They were not all about the power ballads though. Lead singer Kevin Cronin commented that there are certain things that should not go together. They are good on their own but not together, as he introduced “Thinkin’ and Drinkin’”. Cronin and the rest of the band mates, especially bassist Bruce Hall and guitarist Dave Amato where constantly moving about on the stage and interacting with each and at times they come to the edge of the stage to wow the crowd with the guitar skills.
Drummer Bryan Hitt kept the pace moving with the rest of the band with his drumming skills that bordered on John Bonhemesque styling. As the show progressed Cronin talked about the origins of the band as they started out as a bar band at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill. They gained a following and soon became the most popular bar band in the area and even in Chicago where they started to travel to play.
Cronin talked about writing a song based of off the blues tune “Illinois Shuffle” but as they added new members, mainly Amato and Hall, it became a Illinois shuffle with a little bit of Beantown shuffle mixed with east Texas shuffle. Cronin said, “It’s now the Chicago- meets Beantown-meets East Texas Shuffle, also known as “If You Ever Get Lonely.”
Before going into “Can’t Fight This Feeling” Cronin commented that he never set out to right a particular song, they just come to him, “But if I would ever write a song about the lovely ladies of Lancaster, PA this would be it.” With that comment all of the ladies cheered as pianist Neal Doughty started playing the intro to “Can’t Fight This Felling.” The song started with Doughty on piano and 1 single spot light on him and Cronin at the microphone, hands out to his sides with him being lit by another lone spotlight.
Cronin turned over the lead vocal reigns to Bruce Hall for one song, “We’ll let the hardest work man in show business show you why he is that”, said Cronin about Hall. Hall handled the vocals for “Back on the Road Again” as he had when the song was originally recorded. As Hall played and took the spotlight for a moment or two, Cronin sat back at the piano. After Hall fished the stage lights went dim with the exception on one spotlight on Cronin at the piano. He started the piano intro to “Keep on Loving You” at which point the audience cheered with excitement and approval of the song choice. Cronin stayed at the piano for “Soon As You Are Able.”
For one night power ballads reigned supreme once again.
Cronin talked about writing a song based of off the blues tune “Illinois Shuffle” but as they added new members, mainly Amato and Hall, it became a Illinois shuffle with a little bit of Beantown shuffle mixed with east Texas shuffle. Cronin said, “It’s now the Chicago- meets Beantown-meets East Texas Shuffle, also known as “If You Ever Get Lonely.”
Before going into “Can’t Fight This Feeling” Cronin commented that he never set out to right a particular song, they just come to him, “But if I would ever write a song about the lovely ladies of Lancaster, PA this would be it.” With that comment all of the ladies cheered as pianist Neal Doughty started playing the intro to “Can’t Fight This Felling.” The song started with Doughty on piano and 1 single spot light on him and Cronin at the microphone, hands out to his sides with him being lit by another lone spotlight.
Cronin turned over the lead vocal reigns to Bruce Hall for one song, “We’ll let the hardest work man in show business show you why he is that”, said Cronin about Hall. Hall handled the vocals for “Back on the Road Again” as he had when the song was originally recorded. As Hall played and took the spotlight for a moment or two, Cronin sat back at the piano. After Hall fished the stage lights went dim with the exception on one spotlight on Cronin at the piano. He started the piano intro to “Keep on Loving You” at which point the audience cheered with excitement and approval of the song choice. Cronin stayed at the piano for “Soon As You Are Able.”
For one night power ballads reigned supreme once again.
No comments:
Post a Comment