Longtime Chicago bassist Jason Scheff was a shaky but passable fill-in for long-gone vocalist Peter Cetera on Hard Habit to Break, You’re the Inspiration and Hard to Say I’m Sorry. Either way, Saturday in the Park remains one of the feel-goodiest feel-good songs ever written, a crowd favorite that had everyone standing and swaying like it really was the Fourth of July.īoth bands did dip into the softer, cheesier corners of their respective catalogs. But the creative, psychedelic flourishes of experimental suite Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon and greasy Euro-panache of Street Player deserve a fresh look from the Pitchfork set. Unlike Earth, Wind and Fire, Chicago has yet to enjoy a hipster reappraisal and resurgence. With at least four members trading lead vocals during their set, the horns mostly owned center stage - even when they traded their brass for a tambourine, cowbell and clave for the tumbling, rumbling I’m a Man. Maurice wasn’t mentioned by name, but the way Verdine whomped and walloped on his bass, mugging and mashing at the end, he seemed to be digging deep to summon the spirit and soul of his brother.Ĭhicago, on the other hand, relied on their instrumental virtuosity and synchronicity to wow the crowd, particularly anytime trombonist James Pankow, trumpeter Lee Loughnane and saxophonist Ray Herrmann got together at center stage. The last of those, in particular, was a Chicano-funk odyssey of percussion and outta-control bass, backed by a video featuring vintage Maurice White - man, what a wonder that guy was - leasing a much younger band through the very same song. Songs like Jupiter, Fantasy and Serpentine Fire thundered with the cross-cultural, astrological juju for which Earth, Wind and Fire is famous. It was like an expensive and elaborate Broadway musical there was so much happening at once, you didn’t know where to look first.Įarth, Wind and Fire’s solo set came next, and after a brief, odd re-introduction - White and singer-percussionists Philip Bailey and Ralph Johnson bounded back out to great fanfare, like they hadn’t just done the same thing 15 minutes prior - the band warmed up with a smoky, funky groove, then burst out the disco whistle for Boogie Wonderland. Beholding it all was no easy task - band members were staggered across multiple tiers and risers, trading positions and instruments and fist bumps between solos on Chicago’s Beginnings and Dialogue (Part I & II), Earth, Wind and Fire’s In the Stone. The two bands opened the show together, entering member by member, 21 musicians in all, filling the Amphitheatre’s sizeable stage with brass, percussion and multigenerational voices. On Saturday at Tampa’s MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre, Chicago and Earth, Wind and Fire swapped horns and hits for a jubilant 3 1/2 hours, treating 14,000 dancing fans to a crash course in their sizeable legacies, and capping the night with an all-star finale that felt like a Hall of Fame ceremony in itself. Earth, Wind and Fire, on the other hand, is just getting back on the road after the February death of founder Maurice White, the brother of bassist Verdine White.īut while they’re back in the spotlight for very different reasons, both bands have decided to seize their moment and run wild. In two weeks, Chicago will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, after decades of eligibility.
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