REO Speedwagon/Styx/Ted Nugent – Target Center (Minneapolis, MN) April 19, 2013 review

 

 

Reo/Ted/Styx Tour

 

How much at WeHeartMusic do we actually ‘heart music’? – enough to grab a ticket on the 4-hour/3-band extravaganza that is the ‘Midwest Rock n’ Roll Express Tour’ that rolled into Target Center Friday night.

This outing, in its second year, features the (1981) dream line-up of REO Speedwagon, Styx, and Ted Nugent in a bill that would have easily filled stadiums 30+ years ago, but is now relegated to mostly casinos and outdoor amphitheatres. But, while times change, these acts endure and smartly opted to join forces for an entertaining evening of mostly hit-filled sets and pro-America rhetoric.

 

After a brief unannounced solo set by local Kevin Bowe (who played on the recent Replacements reunion), Uncle Ted took the stage for a roaring (and somewhat shrill) 50 min. set, that was in full throttle right out of the gate. Opening with ‘Wango Tango’ (which included a segue into ‘Cool Jerk’), the Motor City Madman plowed through hits like ‘Cat Scratch Fever’, ‘Stranglehold’ and ‘Great White Buffalo’, easing up slightly only when Derek St. Holmes sang or his foray into a Motown medley that had him crooning ‘My Girl’ and Johnny B. Goode. “We Love the cold, keeps that deer-hunting spirit alive” Ted remarked about the chilly Minnesota spring, the only things missing from his set were ‘Free For All’’ and his arrow firing routine, but somewhat expected as he had less than an hour preach the Ted gospel.

 

Styx took the stage next, opening with the one-two punch of “Blue Collar Man” and “Grand Illusion”, in a 72 min. set that brought the energy, original bassist Chuck Panozzo up for a few songs, and the hits people wanted to hear. ‘Light Up’ was NOT a song about the light bulb images that were on the big screen and was performed Friday for the first time in 25 yrs in MN, the tune dedicated to Colorado and Washington for obvious reasons.

Even ‘Man in the Wilderness’, a non-hit from side two of The Grand Illusion, didn’t stop the momentum as they deftly moved from that into guitarist James Young’s attack of the pageant on ‘Miss America’, from the same album, then to the rocker ‘Too Much Times on My Hands’. A somewhat odd medley by keyboardist Lawrence Gowan (who has ably replaced Dennis DeYoung since 1999) followed, intertwining the Stones/Zeppelin/Sabbath/Pink Floyd/Queen before giving way into the biggest reaction of the night, when Styx played ‘Come Sail Away’, complete with picturesque boat and beach scenes on the big screen. Ending with ‘Rockin’ the Paradise’ and ‘Renegade’, the band delivered just the right dosage in a perfect amount of time to squeeze in most of the hits.

REO Speedwagon ended up headlining this night in what is a rotating roster depending on market, and came off as slightly lethargic when compared to Styx’s energy. Their 75 min. set was hit-filled as well; the songs anyone that grew up in the Midwest in the 70s and 80s couldn’t escape on the radio and what would become the soundtrack for so many summer nights. Their classic album ‘Hi-Infidelity’ was well represented with the openers ‘Don’t Let Him Go’ and ‘Take it On the Run’, which had the crowd singing choruses in unison. Even ‘Golden Country’, a 1972 song protesting the Vietnam War, went over well 40+ years later to the crowd of mostly baby boomers.

Lead singer Kevin Cronin has wisely adapted several of the songs into a lower key, as like his curly locks now replaced with a bleach blonde moptop, his range at age 61 is admirable but not what it was when these songs were written. Ending on the high note of ‘Roll With the Changes’, ‘Keep on Lovin’ You, and Riding the Storm Out’, these bands have not only ridden out the storm of the last 40+ years, but they remain charging ahead, still bringing these timeless hits to an audience that treasures them.