Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: REO Speedwagon
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2013
Length: 78:16
Rating: 4/5
Yet another living fossil of rock has just put out a live album. Reo Speedwagon. One of the main workhorses of the late-seventies-into-eighties scene on US soil, who together with bands like Styx, Kansas, Cheap Trick, Boston,… got a mighty arena rock movement up on its feet and kept it going, built on hammering out radio-friendly hits. And in REO Speedwagon’s case, those hits have stayed timeless.
REO Speedwagon were only ever really big stars on the North American continent. 19 platinum albums guarantee that the generation that grew old with them since their »teenage days« still floods into the band’s shows in droves today. The venues are always packed. AND REO Speedwagon only play North America because that market guarantees them financial success. This release, though, is more than welcome for fans of this kind of music on European soil too. It’s REO Speedwagon’s first on the Italian label Frontiers Records, which has a reputation as an exemplary distributor. Sure, since 1990, when »The Earth, a Small Man, His Dog and a Chicken« came out, the band can’t boast a steady flow of original music. Up to 2013 there was only the average and ballad-overloaded, “cloying” »Building The Bridge« (1996), and then, not until 2007, its successor, the otherwise excellent (still relevant) studio album »Find Your Own Way Home«, and the fact remains the same as ever. REO Speedwagon “keep alive” the band’s golden years, which include the most successful album of their career, the nine-times-platinum (to this day) »Hi Infidelitiy« (1980). Yep. They’re simply coasting on old glory. But they’re not the only ones doing that.
It’s precisely these mega hits that let REO Speedwagon stay regulars on concert stages. Barely a year goes by without them showing up on tour. In North America, of course. This promo, which landed under the reviewer’s “pen”, also showed up only as audio (MP3) files again, even though it’s also on the market as a DVD and Blu Ray. So once again I can only describe the music. Which, luckily, is the heart of it. REO Speedwagon still keep their stage excellence today. There’s no doubting that. They’ve got way too much experience to let themselves slip up in any way, though of course live recordings get touched up after the fact one way or another, if some unwelcome sonic hiccup crept in during the performance. This show, too, is tailored to the average expectations of »American concert crowds«. Hence it’s no surprise there’s the theatrical philosophy of Kevin Cronin’s marathon chatter in the breaks between songs between songs. If you melted all that rambling down into units of time, you’d surely get room for at least one more REO Speedwagon song. But folks on the other side of the Atlantic are proven to love events dressed up with spectacular show theater, and they welcome it by giving the band on stage a devoted fanaticism of stormy emotional reactions in return. The audience’s devotion to every trick REO Speedwagon pull off remains extraordinary on this live document as well.
The juicy explosiveness doesn’t run out on this document, thanks to a set list woven together from all the major hits, which carry the crowd on their wings from the first second of the show to the last. Keep On Lovin You, Take It On The, both extraordinary ultra hits from the album »Hi Infidelity« (1980), joined by the expected Don’t Let Him Go (the energetic opening number of the show) and a real little voluptuous surprise in In Your Letter, then Keep the Fire Burning from the album »Good Trouble (1981), and the excellent ballad Can’t Fight This Feeling from the album »Wheels Are Turnin’«(1983)! So everything is in the right place. In the second half of the show the band cranks up the rock fever through the rugged Back On The Road Again, the optimistically droll Roll With The Changes, the AOR »beauty« Ridin’ The Storm Out, and it all gets capped off retrospectively by the fiery rock ‘n’ roll romp 157 Riverside Avenue, taken from the studio debut »Reo Speedwagon« (1971), which proves that REO Speedwagon once admired the work of Chuck Berry.
In today’s REO Speedwagon lineup, the only founding member is keyboardist Neal Doughty, who has been holding it down in that role since 1967. Kevin Cronin joined the band for the second album »R.E.O. / T.W.O.« in 1972, bassist Bruce Hall in 1978, and the quintet is rounded out by drummer Bryan Hitt and guitarist Dave Amato, who joined in 1989. Reo Speedwagon have been playing in this lineup for well over two decades now, and believe me. On the album »LIve At Moondance Jam« they play in a glow of great performing brilliance! They’re a unit that defiantly maintains the hallmarks of a unique blend of rock ‘n’ roll, blues and country folk, with strands of progressive rock woven in, all thoroughly infused with an elementary feel for creating infectious melody, which gives REO Speedwagon’s idiom the finesse of famous AOR expressiveness.
This live album is definitely money well spent, if in your search for REO Speedwagon records on the few Slovenian shelves of CDs, all you ever find is the band’s »best of« compilations. It is a sort of »best of« compilation, sure, but a concretely documented one, signed with concert sweat. Through the perfect chemistry of seasoned musical old-timers, where there are no musical hide-and-seek games, but rather a one-of-a-kind equivalent of a feeling of ease, cheerful mood, restrained youthful wildness, a primal sense of immersion, splendidly dosed with moments of “solo” adventure. Kevin Cronin’s vocal remains the untarnished trademark of REO Speedwagon’s music. Through the years. REO Speedwagon keep the spotless primacy of a true textbook example of how to reach a mood-setting crescendo in a chorus melody, by backing the lead vocal with vocal harmonies! That was always one of the band’s top hallmarks, and you can’t miss it even on this live document. Things still hold firm at REO Speedwagon shows, and in 2013 the band’s body of work proves that rust isn’t sticking to it anytime soon. We’re only waiting for the new studio album now, which, let’s hope, won’t come out eleven years after »Find Your Own Way Home«.
Line-up
Neal Doughty – keyboards, Hammond organ, piano, synthesizer
Kevin Cronin – vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards
Bruce Hall – bass guitar, backing vocals
Dave Amato – guitar, backing vocals
Bryan Hitt – drums, percussion
Production
Sarah Brock
Track list
CD:
1. Don’t Let Him Go
2. Keep on Loving You
3. In Your Letter
4. Take It on the Run
5. Keep Pushin’
6. Golden Country
7. Can’t Fight This Feeling
8. Like You Do
9. Time for Me to Fly
10. Back on the Road Again
11. Roll with the Changes
12. Ridin’ the Storm Out
13. 157 Riverside Avenue
DVD / Blu Ray:
1. Don’t Let Him Go
2. Keep on Loving You
3. In Your Letter
4. Take It on the Run
5. Keep Pushin’
6. Golden Country
7. Can’t Fight This Feeling
8. Like You Do
9. Time for Me to Fly
10. Back on the Road Again
11. Roll with the Changes
12. Ridin’ the Storm Out
13. 157 Riverside Avenue
Bonus : interview with Kevin Cronin
