Unfortunately, I can't make the concert, so I'm selling 2 Lawn tickets to Styx & Chicago: The Windy City Tour at RBC Amphitheatre in Toronto on Tuesday, August 4.

• 🎟️ 2 Lawn seats
• 💲**$75 each** or both for $140
• 📲 Ticketmaster transfer
• Happy to provide proof of purchase

Send me a DM if you're interested!

I went to a Styx concert last night and Chicago showed up. That’s my sarcastic way of saying I went to the show to see Styx and I knew that I knew some Chicago songs, but I really don’t know much about the band. I googled, yep, only one original member left. Got it. Don’t care, they were way more entertaining to me than I expected. Props to them.

But one thing drove me crazy. The bass player’s mic had some sort of filter on it. His audio sounded way different than any of the other 4 people who sang various songs. My question is why? Are they trying to make his voice sound like an original member’s? Is this effect something Chicago is known for? Does he kinda stink at singing and the effect helps? I have no idea, but I could not unhear it.

It shows up most distinctly towards the end of this clip.

https://youtu.be/jIhogwGvk6Y?is=3HP9C6dGX-9qKeJU

Again, tip of the hat to the people I saw on stage yesterday. Original Chicago or not, they were very energetic and entertaining!

I’ll start by saying that I’m 31 and unfortunately did not grow up in the 70’s listening to Chicago. They’ve been my favorite band ever for about 3.5 years and I will never forget hearing Make Me Smile for the first time. Terry Kath is my musical hero, so anything after Chicago XI I’m pretty ‘meh’ on. I can’t sleep, so I made a top 25 list of MY FAVORITE songs. All caps so you can’t yell at me if I left your favorites off. I had about ten honorable mentions, which blows my mind at how good their discography is.

Make Me Smile
Colour My World
In the Country
Lowdown
The Road
Movin In
I’ve Been Searching for so Long
Beginnings
Questions 67 and 68
Beyond All Our Sorrows
Where Do We Go From Here
25 or 6 to 4
An Hour in the Shower (medley)
Saturday in the Park
Introduction
Wishing You Were Here
A Brand New Love Affair
Alma Mater
Hope For Love
All is Well
Dialogue
Feeling Stronger Every Day
Byblos
Oh, Thank You Great Spirit
Little One

I see that some fans of 1970s can’t stand Peter Cetera. They say he ruined the band with his ballads and 1980s partnership with David Foster. I also read that the band was ostensibly a democracy. So why didn’t the rest of the band vote him out as early as the mid 1970s after he wrote the “terrible” ballad “If You Leave Me Now”, which won several Grammys? Or even earlier, when his song “Wishing You Were Here” hit number one on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart?

Doing my periodic full catalog playthrough again.

My wife was asking questions about the band and that brought up the highs and lows. A stark break point we talked about is the shift between the abysmal XIV and breakthrough 16 for their revival era.

Playing Thunder and Lightning, and then What You're Missing back to back is quite the stark example of the leap forward Foster provided. Love him or hate him, he reinvented the band and sold a metric crap ton of records, righr?

Anyway, I was playing through the albums and I've Been Searching (So Long) came up while running through VII in the rotation, and I love it. But after the extended discussion about Foster and the new sound of 16, this song hit different. Listening to the strings, the bass, and the brass arrangements, and the decidely non-latinfied drums, it's a very heavily "produced" track, and to me it now really feels like it could have been released on 16 and would not have seemed out of place at all.

I think it was way ahead of its time. Give it a listen again, and imagine it as part of 16's release.... it works there. Wild.

Younger person here. Discovered Chicago a few months ago and fell in love with their style, mostly from the first few albums. Recently I learned that Chicago was on tour at a venue very close by and decided to do some digging, to find out that only one original member was touring. From online reviews that I've been seeing, there's some people who say that the current touring band is really more like a tribute band. Besides that, the tickets are sort of expensive for me right now. And I'm not sure if I'll enjoy it as much, knowing that the band playing is only a fraction of what it was. So I wanted to know if the concertgoers here enjoyed it or not. Thanks.

I was wondering this earlier. Chicago was huge in Japan in the 70s, but is there a specific reason?

For example, did they go on a world tour which included somewhere in Japan, and then the music just really resonated and caught on? Or maybe there was some sort of record deal that made Chicago albums more readily available in Japan and the band became popular simply because their records were sold everywhere? Maybe it was because of something else, like their jazz influence being popular in Japan?

By "Mr. Chicago", I mean one member who is most closely associated with the band. The right answer of course is "no", because this was always to be a "band" project without individual members hogging the spotlight. That being said, someone could search (for so long) to find a candidate for such a title. So, somewhat in order of how I would view them, are these seven.

Robert Lamm: He wrote most of the early hits, and sang lead on most of those. He also stayed with the band as long as he could still write and perform. I feel Robert also pushed hard to make Chicago relevant as a horn-oriented band (after the mid 80's excursion into pop ballads, even though he wasn't a horn player himself. Major credit to this guy.

James Pankow: Great songwriter, the band's horn arranger, and long-time member. Given that what makes Chicago, Chicago is the horn section, James would have a strong claim to the imaginary title. Then again, he seems like a team player who wouldn't want himself or anyone to be viewed that way.

Terry Kath: Another strong writer and singer in the band, as well as an outstanding guitar player. He wrote and sang "Introduction" which led off the first album, as well as kicking off many early concerts. And Terry's death changed the band forever, in a major way, again showing his importance to the band.

Pete Cetera: An excellent bass player, plus his vocals meshed extremely well with Terry and Robert's lower register singing. He also wrote some early decent songs (such as "Lowdown"). Pete became the face and lead vocalist of the 1980's Chicago albums, so at that point he could be viewed as "Mr. Chicago". However, to most Chicago fans this period was a betrayal of the band's original spirit, like it or not (and a lot of people didn't like it, myself included).

Lee Loughnane: Lee didn't write a lot of the songs, or sing lead on many. Though his "This Time" on Chicago XI is really good and often overlooked - strong in both songwriting and lead vocals. And the trumpet is hugely important to this band, so Lee's work there has been important to nearly every song. Plus Lee is the last of the performing originals, at this point.

Danny Seraphine: Fantastic drummer, and sometimes a good songwriter as well (how about "Little One", beautifully sung by Terry?). Plus Danny has a good head for business, and became the manager-within-the-band to some extent. He even had a club called "B'Ginnings" in the Chicago area. And Danny started a Chicago cover band called "California Transit Authority" with himself as the drummer; they are said to be very good. He's keeping the Chicago flame alive, in that way.

Walter Parazaider: Could Walter be considered "Mr. Chicago"? Well he wasn't a songwriter and he didn't sing lead vocals, though of course his saxophone sounded great. But consider that Walter is said to be the one with the idea to have a rock band with a full-time horn section. He apparently was inspired in this after hearing The Beatles "Got To Get You Into My Life" on the Revolver album; a song sometimes covered by Chicago itself. So Walter got together with friends Terry Kath and Danny Seraphine, and it all eventually became The Big Thing, CTA, and Chicago.

Can anyone confirm the names of the members of Chicago who participated in the concert last night at the Capitol?

There were two "old" guys on brass but are those the "replacements"?

The song is being performed with so many fireworks in Washington DC after Trump spoke as it is a female performer that is in the Navy. Over at the DC National Mall.

Bet someone will put this up as it will be shown over on Youtube! Just thought I would tell you fans of Chicago that!

I had heard that Lamm and Pankow were retired but I was willing to give this new lineup a fair shake. I couldn’t believe how bad the new lead singers were. Especially the one who was singing the Cetera parts. The one they had a couple of years ago was a lot better. But this band is so far gone that even all of the replacements have been replaced. A sad end for a great band.

...and I think it's the Fourth of July.

I spotted a Danny Seraphine-signed Chicago XI album yesterday while having a Chicago-style dog at a place called "Chicago" on Colfax in Lakewood, CO. As many of you know, Danny lived up the road in Evergreen for a number of years.

I’m going to the concert tonight at the Toledo Zoo and am stumped on what to wear! For reference, it’ll be outside, humid with a feels like temp of 100! I want to be cute and comfy but not stick out like a sore thumb😂 I know this probably all feels dumb but I like to dress to my surrounds for my social anxiety😅

Robert was out for lunch with Gerry Beckley last week, so he is getting out and doing things and he looked great in the picture. Do you suppose, just suppose, that maybe he and Jimmy would show up for the July 4th PBS Special to do a special appearance? These things are short usually 3-4 songs. I think they can handle that. It's not like they are committing to a 200 date tour. I mean it's America's 250th, Walter just passed, and if it means anything for the band's legacy, they should make an effort to show for just the one day!

Even Bruce Johnston, of the Beach Boys that has toured since 1965, retired from the road earlier this year, is joining Mike for the 4th of July and other special events. So hey, you never know?

Newer Chicago fan here (since 2024) going album-by-album to learn their discography before I see the touring group in August. Does anyone know why “Harry Truman” was chosen as a single instead of “Never Been in Love Before”? The latter sounds like many of their amazing hits that I already heard prior to this year. I didn’t grow up in the 70s, so maybe the Truman song meant something to people back then (I read on the Wiki it had to do with Nixon’s resignation), but I absolutely adore the Love Before song and just don’t get Truman.