Nov. 6, 1976 review: Earth, Wind & Fire in Memorial Auditorium

 


One of the biggest bands of this bicentennial year at the top of their game.

Nov. 6, 1976

Overall Excellence Scores

Points for Earth, Wind & Fire 

          Earth, Wind & Fire has mastered the art of being Number Two. It’s like in the Olympics. Pile up enough number twos and you’ve got a winner.

          For instance, their “Spirit” album is second on the charts this week. And every trick they trotted out in Memorial Auditorium Friday night was second-best to someone else.

          There was their entrance onstage. Coming out of three huge pyramids was spectacular enough, but only because Parliament-Funkadelic cancelled out of here last month before they got to show off their $275,000 spaceship setting.

* * *

TOWER OF POWER could blow Earth, Wind & Fire’s horn section over like the Walls of Jericho. Next to the heavier funk bands, they’re pretty bland. If they were a movie, they’d be G-rated. Safe for the kids.

          But superiority isn’t the issue with Earth, Wind & Fire. It’s more a matter of overall excellence. With all nine of them blazing away, plus their three extra horn players, they’re a team that’s hard to beat.

          During their two-hour set, which stuck to the group’s most recent material, there was plenty of flash in their teamwork.

* * *

AT ANY given moment, there’d be leader Maurice White driving a vocal, sax player Andrew Woolfolk rocking with an uncanny sense of grace and bassist Verdine White ranging energetically about, even donning a blond wig at one point to be resurrected from a coffin.

          There was a little bit of everything in their sound. African and Latin rhythms. Synthesizer future shock. Disco mixed with mellow swing band phrases. A booming James Brown beat under the delicate plunk of the kalimba.

          The crowd of nearly 9,000, three-quarters Black, one-quarter white, greeted their well-polished sound and inspirational lyrics with wild enthusiasm, cheering and stomping at length for an encore of their recent hit, “Getaway.”

* * *

THE ONLY complaints were the lack of older hits, a tendency to extend the instrumentals beyond the point of invention and the long wait (nearly an hour and a quarter) after the first group left the stage.

          Opening was the Emotions, three gospel-oriented sisters from Chicago whose record was produced by Maurice White. Given only a half-hour, they came and went in a flash of harmony over the hubbub of incoming fans.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Earth, Wind & Fire on tour in 1976.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: By this point, after the chart-topping “That’s the Way of the World” album in 1975, Earth, Wind & Fire had arrived as major stars and they showed it. As their page in Wikipedia notes: “During this period, EWF concerts started to become loaded with pyrotechnics, magic, laser lights, flying pyramids, levitating guitarists and elaborate production tricks.”

          Setlist.fm doesn’t document the EWF “Spirit” tour very well. Most dates don’t have a list at all and the Buffalo date doesn’t even show up. But this list from the Sept. 6 concert at Ratcliffe Stadium in Fresno, Calif., is probably what they did here:

Intro – Africano

Saturday Nite

Celebrate

Happy Feelin’

Gratitude

That’s the Way of the World

Departure

Can’t Hide Love

Biyo

Reasons

Spirit

Shining Star

Sing a Song

Getaway 

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