Nov. 13, 1976 review: Chicago at the Aud

 


I never liked Chicago. As a guitar rocker, I was dismissive of their horns. I thought their songs were doofy. And I despised their name. Can you imagine the reaction if somebody called their band "Buffalo?" Nevertheless, their durability and their enormous mass appeal couldn’t be denied. The journalist in me had to check it all out.

Nov. 13, 1976

Chicago Might Be Fat Cats,

But They Deliver the Goods

The rock group Chicago, now observing its 10th anniversary, has matured into the same kind of regime as the one that rules their namesake city.

          What might be considered quirks in younger administrations have become formalized in Chicago, as was evident from a seat behind the eight-man aggregation in a nearly sold-out Memorial Auditorium Friday night.

          Self-indulgence made for a 35-minute break between the group’s opening 45-minute set and the final hour – long enough to get the crowd clapping impatiently and long enough to set up a whole new band onstage.

* * *

THE SAME attitude prevailed at encore time. The mid-and-late-teen crowd stomped and cheered and lit matches for five full minutes before the band cavalierly reappeared for a closing “Got to Get You into My Life” and “Getting Stronger Every Day.”

          Years of putting records at the top of the charts has turned Chicago into fat cats, each of them licking the cream off the success of this big, brassy music machine.

        Pete Cetera pursued an overgrown pretty-boy role in a green sparkly suit and blond hair fluffed to his shoulders, playing it to the hilt with his 13-string guitar and vocal on the current hit, “If You Leave Me Now.”

          Equally off on a tangent was guitarist Terry Kath, hulking hugely in a New York Rangers hockey jersey.

* * *

THE MAIN SHOW, of course, was the horn section. The three of them jived front and center over their two latter-day signatures – bending their notes for a sassy, mocking tone and blending together for an overinflated pandemonium worthy of Offenbach.

          But even a corrupt machine still has to deliver the goods to stay in favor. Handling the deliveries for Chicago was the back line – keyboardman Robert Lamm, who stayed hidden except for a few thrilling blues notes, and the drummers.

          Danny Seraphine, with his abundance of drums and his earphones, kicked this idling machinery for all he was worth. Leaning into the back of his kit and flailing with hard precision, he may have been the only Chicagoan who was honestly tired by the end of the evening.

          But despite all this personal ward-heeling, sloppiness and transparent showmanship, Chicago somehow survives and, yes, thrives. Their constituents loved them Friday night. Once a machine like theirs gets big enough, it has a momentum of its own.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Group photo from the Chicago 1976 tour program.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Chicago had just released their biggest-selling album to date, “Chicago X,” and Pete Cetera’s “If You Leave Me Now” was their first No. 1 single. It marked a change in the course of the group toward ballads, affirmed in 1977 with another Cetera hit, “Baby, What a Big Surprise.” Cetera had become the face of the group before he left in 1985 to pursue a solo career.     

They lost guitarist Terry Kath, who died from an unintentional self-inflicted  gunshot wound in January 1978, and later that year they split from James Guerico, owner of the Caribou Ranch recording studio in Colorado and the producer who had guided their biggest successes until then.

Nevertheless, through thick and thin, the band has kept on touring and recording. Three of its founding members are still on board – keyboardist Robert Lamm and horn players James Pankow and Lee Loughnane – abetted by an ever-changing cast of supporting members. Its latest release is “Chicago XXXVIII: Born for This Moment.”

Band members for the Memorial Auditorium date – Pete Cetera, bass; Terry Kath, guitar; Robert Lamm, keyboards; Lee Loughnane, trumpet and flugelhorn; James Pankow, trombone; Walter Parazaider, saxophones and flute; Danny Seraphine, drums; and Laudir de Oliveira, percussion.

The setllist, courtesy of setlist.fm:

Beginnings

Any Way You Want

Skin Tight

Just You ‘n Me

Old Days

Saturday in the Park

Make Me Smile

I’m a Man

(intermission)

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

Once or Twice

Scrapbook

If You Leave Me Now

Something in This City Changes People

(I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Long

Call on Me

Colour My World

25 or 6 to 4

(encore)

Got to Get You into My Life

Feelin’ Stronger Every Day

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