LIVE: Chicago / REO Speedwagon @ SPAC, 8/19/14

Photographs by Andrzej Pilarczyk, courtesy of The Glens Falls Chronicle

Veteran heartland rock machines REO Speedwagon and Chicago have both been pumping it out for years, rolling into town in one combination or another (with the Doobies Brothers, Styx, Earth, Wind & Fire, Ted Nugent, etc.) for co-headlining shows.

At the Saratoga Performing Arts Center recently each band took the stage and ran through as many of their hits that they could cram into their set. You know the songs.

Then, at the end of the night they joined forces for a sprawling romp through a handful of their biggest chart-toppers – in this case, REO’s “Roll with the Changes” and “Keep On Loving You” as well as Chicago’s “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” and “25 or 6 to 4” – with all the members of both bands onstage together. That would be 14 musicians in all…

Queensbury native Rich Ortiz opened the show with a 15-minute set of his looping, one-man band originals with plenty of support and enthusiasm from the hometown crowd.

SECOND OPINIONS:
Mike Lisi’s review at The Albany Times Union
Jason Irwin’s review at The Glens Falls Chronicle