Back in Time

We haven’t been to a SPAC concert in ages, but we went last night to see Huey Lewis & the News and Chicago.

Chicago was alright. They’re solid musicians who put on a good show. Although I think there are only two original band members left. Most of the music, especially the horns, were fantastic, but the vocals were lacking on a few songs (Peter Cetera, where are you now?).

The truth is, I probably wouldn’t have gone to see Chicago if they were playing by themselves. Huey Lewis on the other hand was a fantastic blast from the past! This was actually the fourth time I saw the News at SPAC. Back in 1987, they were actually the first concert I ever went to. I saw them again in ’89 and ’91.

What’s not to like about Huey? They’re music is just plain All-American fun.

They came out and played a tight show that lasted a little more than an hour and packed in many of their hits and only one or two songs I wasn’t familiar with. There was a cool medley of “I Want a New Drug” and “Small World”—two songs with very different styles that you would never imagine going together, but they made it work quite well.

Then they came back for an encore that started with “Back in Time,” after that some members of Chicago came out to join them for a fantastically bluesy rendition “Bad Is Bad,” and then they closed it out with “Working for a Living.”

Huey turned up again later on to lend vocals to a couple of Chicago songs—once by himself and once with the rest of the News.

It was so great seeing Huey Lewis & the News again. Twenty-some years later, they’ve still got it. They may not be cool anymore, but it sure is hip to be square.