Posted September 26, 2023
Chicago in Concert
Tennessee Theatre
Knoxville, TN
September 26, 2023
Photo by Randy Patterson
For fifty-six years the legendary band Chicago has been blowing away fans with their intricate, precision-like music and performances all over the world. This writer remembers picking up a used copy of their debut album, Chicago Transit Authority, when I was a pre-teen and enjoying the heck out of songs like Beginnings, Questions 67 and 68, and Does Anybody Really Know What Time It is? Into my teens, I would go to school dances and PRAY that the DJ would play Colour My World so that I could ask whichever girl I had a crush on that particular week to slow dance with me.
It's memories like these and many more that drew a sold-out crowd to the Tennessee Theatre for a 2+ hour concerts chock full of hits from the band’s illustrious career. At standing, other times singing along, but all the time enjoying and reminiscing of the days that those classic, timeless hits jettisoned us all back to.
Remarkably, the band still sounds just like the albums that the show’s setlist were culled from. The band lineup has three of the band’s founding members (Robert Lamm, Jimmy Pankow, and Lee Loughnane). After all these years, these legends are still as musically crisp, sharp, and tight (if not more so) as they were on day one of their illustrious career.
This show was my fourth time seeing the band and I can honestly say the band is as good as – if not better than – ever before.
I encourage you to catch shows by Chicago – and any other act that made up the soundtrack of your youth. Yes, we’re all getting older and, sadly, some of the people we listened to on our radios and stereos back in the day are slowly but surely passing away. None of us know when we’ll be checking out and that is true with these “legacy acts.”
Buy the tickets. Attend the shows. Applaud them. Buy the music and merchandise. You will love it all and they will greatly appreciate it.
