Uncle Ted
SPRINGFIELD – The Midwest Rock and Roll Express Tour featuring Ted Nugent, Styx and REO Speedwagon chugged into the Mass Mutual Center on Tuesday night. This tour features some of the biggest hit makers from the 1970s and 1980s. All three artists combined have had numerous top ten hits and have also provided us with some of the most memorable power ballads in music history.
This tour has been rotating headliners each night and tonight, Ted Nugent had the opening slot. Opening with one of his classic fan favorites, Wango Tango, Nugent and band were in top form. “Uncle Ted” as he refers to himself breezed through a 50-minute set that included the hits, Just What the Doctor Ordered, Wang Dang Sweet Poontang and Cat Scratch Fever. However, smack dab in the middle of the set, was a medley of old time songs that included snippets of the Motown classic My Girl and Chuck Berry’s Johnny B Goode. My only question is why? Nugent mentioned during the show “I’ve been doing this for over 50 years,” has such an enormous catalog of music to choose from, but then decides to throw in a medley of cover songs. It just didn’t make sense to me. But then again being in the business for over 50 years gives you the right to play whatever you want to. On the second to last song, The Nuge broke into Stranglehold to the crowd’s approval before ending the night with my personal favorite, Great White Buffalo.
REO Speedwago
REO Speedwagon, led by one of the most energetic singers in rawk today, Kevin Cronin, opened their set with Don’t Let Him Go from the 1980 ten times platinum release Hi Infidelity. Hi Infidelity gave REO their first number one hit and also spawned the top five hit, Take it on the Run, which was played next. The band’s set culled from over a forty-year career consisted of material from a number of their releases. Some of the hits that made their way on to the set list included, Keep Pushin’, Can’t Fight This Feeling, Time for Me to Fly, and Roll With the Changes. Without a doubt, this a professional band that has all the right concert moves, plays to the crowd and has a boatload of great sing-a-long songs. The band’s energy did seem to fade as the night went on, but did come out for a two song encore. Their only number one hit, Keep on Loving You, was the first encore and if you are over 30 and don’t know the words to this song, shame on you. It is a timeless power ballad that had the crowd singing at the top of their lungs. The energy was back as was the crowd. REO went all the way back to 1973 and finished off the night with a rousing, Ridin’ the Storm Out. Great classic rawk song to end their set. A side note, REO Speedwagon, known as an 1980s band, had more releases in the 1970s then it did in the 1980’s, 90’s and 2000’s.
On to the headliner for the evening, or at least this night, Styx. Styx also formed in the 1970’s and also has put out more releases in the 1970s than they did in the 1980s and 1990’s. The band has a long documented history of members coming and going, but tonight was all about a good time and good rawk songs. Opening up with Rockin’ the Paradise, Styx paved the way for a night of hit songs. Blue Collar Man followed and that quickly led into The Grand Illusion followed by Too Much Time on My Hands. The band slowed things down with the song, Lady, before firing into, Light Up and Man in the Wilderness. Miss America and Fooling Yourself were next before the band went into a Rolling Stones/Led Zeppelin/Queen/Pink Floyd medley. Although cool to hear them play these tunes, and like I mentioned about Ted Nugent, they have too many other hits that could have taken its place. The band finished up the night with Come Sail Away before returning for an encore to play the fan favorite, Renegade. Overall the band sounds great. The majority of the members has been doing this for a number of years and really knows how to put on a great show. One missing element from their live show is the absence of Dennis DeYoung. DeYoung wrote the majority of Styx songs and is credited with writing most of their chart-topping hits. Don’t get me wrong, his replacement Larry Gowan has been with the band for awhile, is an excellent musician and the band hasn’t skipped a beat live. It would be nice for the band to mend the fences, get DeYoung back in the band and give the true Styx fans reason to fully enjoy these shows.
Overall, great to see a live rawk show come back to the Mass Mutual Center and to see the fans supporting it. As I have said in the past, hopefully this is the start of more bands making their way into Springfield. We shall see…
