This past Friday Mrs. Stumpy and I went with some friends to see Chicago at the Chip In Casino in Bark River. The concert was great - ran about an hour and 20 minutes, including encore. Lots of memories for this largely aged audience. The crowd was really fired-up. Fun to watch the audience, too. I didn't smell any dope, just lots of beer. Seating was comfortable.

There were shows on Friday and Saturday. Both were sold out. The auditorium holds a little over 1300 - not a bad turnout for the U.P., where we've got roughly 300,000 people spread over 17,000 square miles.

One minor problem - it was often hard to distinguish what some of the musicians were playing, even during solos. The keyboards, bass and guitar were often tough to hear. Maybe the equipment was limited by the space on stage or the economics of the venue. I don't know.

At any rate, I've only been to four concerts over the last 15 years, so this was pretty nice for me.

The end.

Sounds great
I like to see Earth Wind and Fire too

Yeah, they had some great tunes.

LOL

Jaz has a Earth Wind and Fire , text tone alert / set at the loudest possible tone , that went off like 3:00 AM , kinda pissed me off . Kinda surprised me she had that tune being she was only like 2 years old at that time

Saw California Transit Authority (stupid Flash-heavy site) featuring ousted Chicago drummer Danny Seraphine a couple years ago in the local park/amphitheater.

They can't use Chicago because of some trademark feuding, but lemme tell you, they were as good as C.T.A./Chicago ever were.

Seraphine hooked up with '80s prog-metal phenom guitarist Mark Bonilla and has said that he felt as though the spirit of Terry Kath was speaking through him. He has said that before meeting Bonilla, he just didn't feel it like he did back in the old days.

Before the performance here in town I went to the California Transit Authority's website to check 'em out. They were pretty much doing all the old horn parts on keyboard, and for efficient touring's sake, that makes sense. Considering the state of the art of synthesizers these days, the horn parts sounded great, and pretty authentic.

But here's the cool thing: There's a local group of 3 or 4 guys that play horns with whomever will hire them, and they've played together for decades. They're tighter than a gymnast's butt and they know a bazillion songs. They stepped in—WITH NO REHEARSAL—and played the whole night with the band. So, not only did they have the keyboards doing horn parts, they had a brilliant horn section filling in with a glorious sound of their own.

Bonilla launched into an intro for Colour My World that was simultaneously jazzy, soaring, and even a little Zappa-circa-the-late-1960's-loopy...I had no idea what song they were doing until the band segued into the familiar chord base of the Spring Prom Dance favorite. I was floored.

If California Transit Authority comes your way, don't hesitate to go see them.

One of the few old time bands I never got to see live.
I listen to Wolfgang's Vault quite a bit, and it's really obvious to hear who were the best live musicians of the time.
Quicksilver? ouch. Big Brother? Ouch. Jefferson Airplane? OUCH!
Chicago Transit Authority? Completely blew me away. Great stuff.
I WILL check out California Transit Authority if they come nearby.
Glad you had a great time!

Thanks, I will.

The reasons both camps put forth for the parting of ways are so diametrically opposed that I don't know what to believe. Seraphine was a good drummer, though.

Hard to live on a bus with anyone else for years. I couldn't do it.