7.22.2010 - Chicago and The Doobie Brothers @ Verizon Wireless

Chicago and The Doobie Brothers is another one of those shows that wasn't on our radar until I got a "free" lawn ticket for giving blood at work.  I say "free" because I still had to pay facility fees of $7 at the gate, which is annoying, but still cheap.  Since it had poured down rain earlier in the day, the lawn was pretty mushy, so we upgraded to pavillion seats.

Certainly a different crowd than we are used to seeing - more middle-aged and up people attending this one - not surprising considering the Doobies and Chicago have been rocking for 4 decades or so now.  Nonetheless, our seats happened to magically be right in front of the row of drunken frat-boys who wanted everyone in the ampitheater to hear their ridiculous conversations.  About two songs into the set, we went to grab a drink and then sat in the mostly empty section of seats next to us to avoid dealing with them all night.  People like this are the bane of our concert-going existence...but I digress.

Before this show, I honestly couldn't have named a single song by The Doobie Brothers.  As they kicked off the show, I heard a few familiar ones, like "Black Water".  They got the crowd into their music, and there was a large contingent of 40-something men rocking out to them, giant cans of beer raised up over theirs heads in full worship mode.

Then it was time for Chicago to take the stage.  The first thing we noticed about them is how they all had on their designer-looking jeans and tight t-shirts - it looked like we had walked into a convention of youth pastors.  Not helping the matter any, some of them including the lead singer, who I'll refer to as not-Peter Cetera, were using headset mics instead of actual mics on floor stands.  It just made things seem cheesy and reminiscent of a musical instead of a rock show.  And I think the lead singer was attempting his best Peter Cetera imitation, instead of using his natural singing voice.  I have also never seen another band, large or small, plug themselves and a new album as much as Chicago did on

They did some of the big (well, what I consider big) Chicago hits from the past, like a medly of "Hard Habit to Break" and "You're the Inspiration", and nearer the end of their set"Saturday in the Park", "Hard to Say I'm Sorry".  Then The Doobie Brothers joined Chicago back onstage for the encore portion of the show, where the bands played each other's songs.  They played Chicago's "I Just Wanna Be Free", The Doobies' "Takin' It To the Streets" which included some weird little choreographed moves.  "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is" by Chicago, and "Listen to the Music" by The Doobies rounded out the show.  The encore was by far my favorite part - most people knew all of the songs, were singing along, and the bands both had great energy.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Posted in | , , , | 0 Comments »

One Responses to "7.22.2010 - Chicago and The Doobie Brothers @ Verizon Wireless"

Write a comment