Had the opportunity to see Chicago this 4th of July weekend. I had been wanting to see Chicago live for many years and it finally happened, but it wasn't what I expected.
The Production: The bowl is my favorite concert venue for a reason, as nothing beats a warm summer night outdoors listening to music with a large crowd. The production of the show was quite professional, which included the LA Philharmonic. Nevertheless, the fireworks after the show were the best part of the show, and I'll briefly state why....
The Performance: The concert started with the LA Philharmonic, playing some nice orchestral music. When Chicago finally came on-stage, my anticipation was running pretty high. They started with mostly instrumental pieces, featuring their brass players playing along with the LA Phil. It took about 30 minutes for fans of Chicago to finally get to hear some of their songs, and in the end, they only played about 7 of their songs. With tickets at about $50 dollars a piece for me, this almost averaged about $10 per song, which is not what I had hoped for. Though the concert was smooth and held in a great outdoor venue, nothing about the performance stood out in particular. The songs drawing the loudest response were "You're the Inspiration" and "Saturday in the Park". Chicago has a total of 4 songs on my 1001 Best Rock Songs of All-Time list.
