Chicago / Earth, Wind & Fire - Live At The Greek Theatre
Performance
Production
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Chicago / Earth, Wind & Fire - Live At The Greek Theatre
Performance
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Although Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire both formed in Chicago during the late 60's, and each framed their sounds around a couple of mighty horn sections, this was not your obvious pairing for a co-headlining concert tour. Chicago's early sound was aggressive, jazz-influenced, rock & roll, which was eventually transformed into a slick, adult-contemporary, hit machine of the 80's, thanks to new producer and songwriter David Foster. EWF mixed funk, jazz, rock, and soul into a mystical concoction of songs that appealed to a broad range of music lovers throughout the world. When both bands take the stage together, however, their chemistry and commonalities become obvious, and the results are often amazing. For Chicago's set, I was expecting something similar to their 2002 performance on A&E Network's Live By Request, but only in a real concert setting this time. Considering the sterile setting of the A&E show, Chicago was about as good as you could expect that night, especially without Peter Cetera's signature lead vocals in the mix. As far as EWF are concerned, I was not really expecting much from them this late in the game, seeing that they have essentially been reduced to a cover band, with only original members Verdine White, Philip Bailey, and Ralph Johnson left in the fold. Of course, the results on this DVD are the exact opposite of what I expected. Live At The Greek Theatre was recorded in August of 2004, at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, California, during Chicago and EWF's co-headlining summer tour. Surprisingly, both bands take the stage together to open the show, and fittingly kick off the proceeding's with "Beginnings", which was a hit song for Chicago before many of these young bucks on stage were even born. The show begins with too much of a glitzy Las Vegas extravaganza look and feel to it, with the 20 combined band members, strategically positioned on multiple levels all over stage, high-fiveing each other, and giving their shout-outs to all of the friends and celebrities in the front rows. All I could think of was "Up, Up With People". When I first saw both bands take the stage together, I figured it would have to be a disaster. How in the hell were they going to do these songs any justice, let alone get a decent sound mix with all of the musicians fighting to be heard. Obviously, a summer's worth of practice and refinement paid off, because this opening segment, and the ending finale, were the absolute highlights of the show. "Beginnings" was one of the most powerful versions I have ever heard, with the EWF horn section adding some serious muscle to the horn arrangement, and all of the great vocalists onstage laying down some amazing harmonies. The "only the beginning" outro section sounded so incredible it literally gave me the chills. They finished up this segment with equally impressive performances of EWF's "In the Stone", and Chicago's "Dialogue (Pt. I & II)". After the exhilarating opening segment, bandleaders Robert Lamm and Philip Bailey met at the front of the stage to greet the audience and announce that they would be flipping a coin to determine which band would play first. They sure made it seem like no egos were involved, and that they had used the coin toss throughout the tour, but I wonder if there was actually a pre-determined order of performance. A "heads" result determined that EWF would play first, and the members of Chicago quickly left the stage. While some of the gear was being cleared away, Bailey, White, and Johnson went backstage to change outfits, and the rest of the band jammed for a few minutes on "Magic Mind". The three leaders returned, sporting new multicolored outfits that distinguished them more from the solid blue uniforms that the rest of the band wore, and were just in time to kick off their massive disco hit "Boogie Wonderland". Didn't everybody do a disco song in 1979? Hell, even KISS put out "I Was Made For Lovin' You" for God's sake. EWF performed a 14-song set that included most of their essential songs, going as far back as 1974s breakthrough album Open Our Eyes, for the charming "Kalimba Story" and the super funky "Mighty Mighty". They only went as far forward as 1987 with "System of Survival", although they did riff for a few seconds on "The Way You Move", the OutKast cover they gave the smooth jazz treatment to on their 2005 comeback album Illumination. High points in between were some amazing performances of "Serpentine Fire", "That's The Way Of The World", and "Fantasy", as well as Bailey's incredible falsetto vocal pyrotechnics on an extended jam version of "Reasons". The only real stumble along the way was allowing Chicago's Bill Champlin to come out and sing the otherwise gorgeous "After The Love Has Gone". So what if he co-write the song, the guy can't sing to save his life anymore. Champlin has been an embarrassment for Chicago for at least the last ten years, and he made me, and I'm sure all of the EWF fans, cringe throughout the entire performance. Chicago's set got off to a decent start with what they called the "Make Me Smile Medley", which was actually parts 1-5 of the "Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon" suite from the Chicago II album. It was cool to hear so much of this classic suite played in order, but the poor vocals really brought some of the sections down, especially Champlin singing "Make Me Smile". They followed with their mega hit balled "If You Leave Me Now", which they wisely invited Philip Bailey out to sing, but it didn't exactly sound optimal sung in falsetto. I think I might have hung myself if they let Champlin sing it though. Peter Cetera replacement, Jason Scheff, who has astonishingly been with the band for more than 20 years now, took center stage next on "Call On Me" and "Alive Again". Although the guy is a monster on the bass guitar, better than Cetera was, his vocals surely aren't. He has the right kind of tenor to approximate Cetera's vocals, but it often just sounds like a bad imitation. The power is just not there. Don't even ask how bad "Hard Habit To Break" sounded with Scheff and Champlin trading leads - it was not pretty. Guitarist Keith Howland also sings the occasional Cetera part, and he sounded pretty good on "Old Days", probably because he was simply letting it fly instead of trying too hard to imitate Cetera. Scheff and Howland should combine their vocals on every Cetera song, because they both sound too thin individually. Chicago's set did have it's high points. Walter Parazaider's amazing flute solo during "Just You N' Me" propelled it over yet another weak vocal performance, and "Saturday In The Park" sounded better than ever, thanks to Robert Lamm's still great sounding vocals. "Feelin' Stronger" is such a powerful track, and it really brought the house down this night. I was surprised to see that "I'm A Man" was the absolute high point of the set. The horn section laid down their brass and woodwinds in favor of various pieces of handheld percussion, and Scheff made up for all of his vocal shortcomings with a phenomenal funky bass workout, that was only topped by Howland's soaring guitar performance. They should have left the stage after that one, but they insisted on dusting off the sappy "Hard To Say I'm Sorry" - although the ending "Get Away" section was simply killer. Both bands joined together again to close out the show, and they picked up right where they left off. This time they started with EWF's "September", which featured Bailey, Lamm, and Sheff all adding some excellent lead vocals. Moments after they launch into Chicago's "Free", a giant American flag drops down to drape the entire back of the stage, and I guess to remind the fans that America is "the home of the free". Chicago's Walter Parazaider and EWF's Gary Bias trade amazing sax solos and simply steal the song. The whole time Verdine White is hysterically bouncing around like the Energizer Bunny on crack. He was more animated than a cartoon character throughout the whole show, but he backs it all up with some marvelous bass grooves. The show is finally brought to an amazing close with two of the finest songs from each of these band's catalogs. "Shining Star" has never sounded funkier and more powerful, boosted again by the extra horns and vocal help from the Chicago guys. Every lead vocalist on stage was given a verse to strut their stuff. I don't believe that there was a single person in the crowd who was not up and dancing at this point. Chicago's incomparable "25 or 6 to 4" made for the perfect finale, and was highlighted by a lead guitar showdown featuring Chicago's Keith Howland, and EWF's Greg Moore and Vadim Zilbershtein. Howland's guitar work is a definite bright spot in the band, and he made a few smokin' solos look entirely too easy. Moore, who usually only handles the rhythm guitar duties for EWF, turned in a pretty respectable solo, but it was Russian guitar wiz Zilbershtein who stole this guitar duel with his fiery Di Meola-esque solo. You couldn't ask for a much better packaged and produced DVD than what you get with Live At The Greek Theatre. Where most producers would have edited this package down to a 90-minute highlights video, this one gives you the entire, nearly three-hour, show. DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mixes both sound stellar. Each of the instruments and vocals could be heard clearly in the mix, and never sounded cluttered. This was especially amazing when both bands took the stage together. The surrounds were utilized extensively to provide the perfect amount of crowd noise and instrumentation to make you feel like you were right in the middle of the theater. The widescreen video was shot in high definition and looked amazingly clear, sharp, and colorful. The camera angles dashed around too quickly for my liking, but the director captured the show well overall. The only bonus feature was a "drum duel" which featured Chicago's Tris Imboden and EWF's John Paris and Ralph Johnson. At just under five minutes, it was nothing special, but drum enthusiasts will probably enjoy it. This DVD could have been supplemented nicely by some interviews with the band members discussing the tour, but I am not going to complain after getting so much great concert footage. Taken separately, I would have rated EWF's performance a nine, Chicago's a six, and the combined sets a nine, which is how I derived the overall performance rating of eight. This may not be the Chicago or Earth, Wind & Fire that your parents, or, if you are old like me, that you grew up with, but this DVD certainly proves that both of these bands are still capable of putting on a pretty damn satisfying show. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - March 2007 |
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Running Time: 171 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - June 2005 |