A 30 Year Reunion!

They say you remember your first. That can apply to anything. First kiss, first drink, first hit, first place, or even first concert. I remember it well. If you exclude a Broadway show at the Winterland Garden Theatre 12/8/77 for 'Beatlemania, the first rock concert I saw in person was 8/24/80 at Poplar Creek in northern Illinois. 

For two years I became more and more into music and it's genres. Being biased by the format of The Loop FM 98 WLUP and 95.5 FM WMET, I was getting schooled daily on music from Rush to Black Sabbath to Off-Broadway to REO Speedwagon.

Most of my friends considered the boys from Champaign as a chick band. That may well be. I know I liked the lyrics and the great mesh of Gary Richrath guitar riffs and the keyboard playing oh Neal Doughty. '157 Riverside Avenue' was my song. I played the live album and Nine Lives daily!

Unknown band The Rockets headlined for REO. I don't remember much about their set except I was having my first experience with Mad Dog 20/20. A very brutal bit of alcohol that tastes great going down, but bites hard on the way up.

I was very buzzed as the shows began. The buzz and the heat wore me down to dry when REO was about to take the stage. 

Two and a half hours of energy, rock and power ballads. Two months from premiering their 'Hi Infidelity' album, we heard 'Keep On Loving You' to a standing ovation. Kevin Cronin mesmerized the crowd and Gary and Bruce Hall were having a good ole time. Alan Gratzer was epic on the drums. My ears rang for three days. It was a wonderful experience.

Now fast forward 30 years to an open aired park in Farmers Branch, Texas. The 1st ever Libertyfest. A free concert north of Dallas Texas. Reo Speedwagon and the Gin Blossoms as the starter band. Hell yeah, why not? I wanted to see if the first band I saw live still had it. 

If going to your class reunion is like this then remind me to go back. It was like time stood still. Yes we are older, wiser, grayer, and maybe a little more humble. It was a pleasant experience! Even minus Gary and Alan, the essence of Speedwagon was spot on. Dave Amato plays a mean lead guitar.

The REO drummer, Bryan Hitt, a Beaumont Texas prodigy, was double pedaling with such ferocity and conviction that I thought John Bonham was reborn. Reminded me alot of Dean Castronovo for Journey. Powerful and tight.

Bruce Hall looked at ease and happy to be plunking away on bass. Neal Doughty looked like he hadn't aged a bit. A lot of music from the 'Hi Infidelity' album. 'Golden Country' got a huge pop from the capacity crowd. My personal favorite 'Back On The Road Again' played toward the end. Bruce Hall hit it out of the park!

Right before the band played 'Time for me to fly' Kevin Cronin paid tribute to Ronnie James Dio. I found that to be way cool on the ten scale. The crowd of close to 20,000 was whooping. hollering, and dancing the night away. Things got raucous come encore time when the first piano chords of 'Roll with the changes' began. I was dancing too.

I noticed at one point that Kevin Cronin was wearing a t-shirt that just said 'recovery'. That got me to thinking about a lot of things. Namely, how weird yet how cool it was to be able to watch a show live, sober, and without the smell of marijuana flying in the air.

The start of a busy Memorial Day weekend began in fine fashion. My thanks to those who provided the free tickets. That was worthwhile. I hope this event for Farmers Branch gets better in time.

Now I receive an interesting phone call...Now what?

Over and out in Big D

Mr. Will