Jukebox Through Nerdville: REO Speedwagon & Chicago at the Greek

“Jukebox Through Nerdville” is one of the first things I ever learned about Larry when meeting him through chemistry.com, and it’s an apt description.  Not that I lay claim to a taste in music above reproach, that’s for sure, but I loved that Larry had this kind of taste in music.  More often than not, our music tastes coincide, so fortunately there hasn’t been any kind of surprising discoveries such as an obsession with Yanni or death metal.

One day a few weekends ago, while getting lit on margaritas at home (what better way is there to spend a sunny afternoon?), we had decided to look up on whether Chicago was doing any tours….crazily enough, they were!  And in just a few weeks, at the Greek!  Even better, it was a joint concert with REO Speedwagon, which blew our minds.  There were other concerts at the Greek that we were interested in, but this was the one that fit our schedule the best and frankly, it was the one we wanted to go to anyways.

It was an AWESOME show, to be quite honest.  We were both prepared to watch a sad show with old guys giving it their best, but damn, both REO Speedwagon and Chicago put on a fantastic show.  I’ll give the edge to Chicago just because their show involves an exciting horns section, but when they both united at the end to do an extended encore, it really was impressive.

As a note about these setlists, it’s a combination effort between me and setlist.fm, as some of the songs played were deep cuts that neither Larry or I had any idea what they were!

The Greek Theater, August 1, 2014

REO Speedwagon Setlist:

1. Music Man
2. Take It On The Run (Yay!)
3. Keep Pushin’
4. Can’t Fight This Feeling (Yay!!!!)
5. That Ain’t Love
6. Tough Guys
7. Time For Me To Fly
8. Back on the Road Again

REO Speedwagon concluded this first act and we had a brief intermission before Chicago came out.  And then it was Larry-bliss time as they played a LOT of songs, and it was a blast!

Chicago setlist:

1. Make Me Smile
2. So Much to Say, So Much to Give
3. Colour My World
4. Now More Than Ever
5. Now (a new song that definitely feels like a Larry song)
6. Hard Habit to Break
7. You’re the Inspiration
8. Beginnings
9. I’m A Man
10. Street Player (okay, I had NO idea that “These Sounds Fall Into My Mind” dance song from the 90s was a sample from Chicago!!)
11. Just You ‘N’ Me
12. Saturday in the Park (for such a cheesy song, this got EVERYONE in the Greek on their feet)
13. Hard To Say I’m Sorry/Get Away
14. Feelin’ Stronger Every Day

Then after that great set, Chicago and REO Speedwagon joined together on the stage for a fantastic encore set of 3 songs from each band, but performed by both, for 6 more songs.  It was awesome!

Encore setlist

1. Ridin’ The Storm Out (REO Speedwagon)
2. Free (Chicago)
3. Keep On Loving You (REO Speedwagon – they HAD to play this song as it was suspiciously absent from their opening set)
4. Does Anybody Really Know What Time it is? (Chicago)
5. Roll With The Changes (REO Speedwagon)
6. 25 or 6 to 4 (Chicago – again, this HAD to be the last song as it’s so defining of a song, and an epic way to close a concert)

All in all, it was a surprisingly good rock concert from bands that are endlessly associated with soft rock of the 70s and 80s….and we both just loved that these bands rocked the HELL out of their songs.  And we’re also happy to have been able to actually really be “there” for a concert at the Greek, finally.  🙂