------Feature • Chicago------Across the Generational Divide By Michele DeVinney which included now-classic hits like the apt- they veered from their Roman numeral al- ly titled “Beginnings” and “Does Anybody bum titles. With the song “Alive Again,” Once upon a time, in the early days of Really Know What Time It Is?” Although the band indicated only months after Kath’s rock n’ roll, music divided the generations. double albums were quite the rage for awhile passing that they were prepared to move Parents, appalled by the long hair and sheer (George Harrison even had a triple album), forward, with Cetera now handling the lead volume of this new genre, railed against art- new bands have seldom thrown down the vocals almost exclusively. It proved a com- ists like Elvis Presley and the Beatles. But gauntlet in such bold fashion. But the group mercial boon for the band which now began a new day has dawned, and what once provided fodder for family disharmony now unites the generations as much as it once divided. Oh, there are still squabbles, to Saturday, Nov. 10 • 8:00pm be sure (not all parents have embraced hip-hop or are pre- pared to call themselves Be- JOHN liebers), but when it comes to classic rock or oldies radio stations or concerts featur- TWO-HAWKS ing bands from 30 or even WITH SPECIAL GUEST 40 years ago, age becomes almost irrelevant. MIMI BURNS BAND I have seen this phenom- enon with my own kids. Our $15 Adv., $20 D.O.S. rather large blended family has experienced the shared bliss of Springsteen concerts in recent years. I’ve attended an Alice Cooper concert with my oldest, and my daughter is currently requesting Otis Redding on the car stereo because “it relaxes her” before she heads to work. Then CHICAGO there’s my middle Friday, November 16 • 7:30 p.m. clearly had plenty charting with softer, 80s-friendly ballads child, Jamie, who Honeywell Center to say, and their featuring Cetera’s smooth voice. While the has taken this retro 275 W. Market St., Wabash musical offerings horn section remained, the band seemed to thing in a direction I featured a seam- be moving to a more pop-oriented sound had not anticipated: Tix: $45-$125 thru box office, less fusion of jazz, with a new voice at the forefront and pro- he collects vinyl 260-563-1102 rock and pop which ducer David Foster at the helm. records. While I found an audience The new era was short-lived when Cet- Thursday, Dec. 6 • 8:00pm have spent the last quarter-century trying to immediately. Nearly everyone climbed era left the band in the mid-1980s. Tired of replace my vinyl with CDs (don’t even talk aboard this Chicago Transit Authority (ex- life on the road and already having launched to me about iPods), Jamie has spent the last cept, ironically, the actual CTA which ap- a successful solo career, Cetera’s voice re- COCO several years doing the exact opposite. parently doesn’t cotton to rock bands paying mained a mainstay of pop radio while Chi- As that collection was first taking shape, homage to their hometown mass transit sys- cago moved forward with a new bassist/ MONTOYA Jamie’s friend Briana gifted him with a va- tem in such fashion). Fortunately, the Windy vocalist/songwriter to fill Cetera’s hefty role $25 Adv., $30 D.O.S. riety of albums, including Chicago II. Of City proved more forgiving when the band (Jason Scheff) and continued to have success course, I had grown up listening to Chicago, shortened their moniker to the far simpler of its own. Change again altered the lineup and I played Chicago VII constantly for a name of Chicago. through the years, with founding member Saturday, Dec. 22 • 6:00pm time. But I guess I hadn’t played it enough By this time Chicago included saxo- Seraphine leaving in 1990. (His memoir, in later years to expose my kids to their mu- phonist Walter Parazaider, guitarist Terry Street Player – My Chicago Story, was re- sic, so this album was a great revelation to Kath, drummer Danny Seraphine, trombonist leased in 2010.) Yet despite these signifi- A C2G Jamie, a musician himself. He was hooked, James Pankow, trumpet player Lee Lough- cant upheavals, Chicago boast a remarkably and soon he had me helping him to acquire nane, keyboardist Robert Lamm and bassist sturdy lineup of musicians, with Parazaider, the entire Roman numeric assortment of Peter Cetera, with Kath handling most of the Pankow, Loughnane and Lamm still on CHRISTMAS Chicago LPs. lead vocals. Eventually, Cetera’s voice was board. Even some of the replacement play- This story is not unique in families to- also heard more regularly, with his ballads ers, most notably Scheff, have now been part CONCERT day. Check out audiences at most concerts “If You Leave Me Now” and “Baby What of the band longer than their predecessors. featuring artists from yesteryear, and you a Big Surprise” providing a counterpoint to Most significantly, the music and popu- Go to our website for ticket are going to find smiling faces of all ages the band’s other hits like “Saturday in the larity of Chicago has endured through suc- information & more mouthing along to lyrics several decades Park.” Chicago covered a lot of musical ter- cess and tragedy, change and consistency. old. What is remarkable is how a band like ritory, and the diverse talents of its members It’s for that reason that their appearance at ALL SHOWS ALL AGES Chicago, which runs the gamut from jazzy allowed them to tap into the varied tastes the Honeywell Center in Wabash proved a rock to adult contemporary, has managed to and radio expectations of the 1970s. But that hot ticket upon availability. Those catchy sustain not only the often changing whims of perfect balance was shattered in 1978 when grooves, those hot horns and an unspeakably the music industry but changes in lineup that Kath was killed by an accidental, self-inflict- recognizable catalog of music have taken might have crippled other groups. ed gunshot wound. Chicago into its fifth decade and will con- The band, originally dubbed Chicago In the wake of Kath’s death, Chicago tinue to bring together generations of music Transit Authority, debuted with a bang in seemed to shift direction, naming their sub- lovers who will happily share them for years 1969, releasing an eponymous double album sequent release Hot Streets, the first time to come. 6------www.whatzup.com------November 8, ’12