Chicago Strike Masterful Balance At Hollywood Bowl

Give Chicago a ton of credit. When you are headlining the Hollywood Bowl fireworks finale and arguably your biggest hit is called “Saturday in The Park” you are well aware what people are seeking at your show.

They want nostalgia, summer vibes, familiarity, they want easy. They are not there to be challenged. They want to eat and drink in their box and groove to songs they’ve known for decades.

Well, at night one of their three-night stand, Chicago said, “Screw that” and did the show they wanted, providing both hits and familiarity and an unexpected musical challenge as well.

The band showed from the beginning they were not going to coast on their hits, going back to their early up-tempo funk and soul roots for the opening one-two punch of “Introduction” and “Dialogue (Part 1 & 2).” Those were followed by the first big hit, the ballad, “If You Leave Me Now.”

However, instead of settling into the hits, the band swung for the fences, breaking out the ultra-ambitious eight-part musical suite, Ballet for a girl in Buchannon. A mix of Chicago classics like “Make Me Smile” and “Colour My World,” and lesser-known tracks such as “Anxiety’s Moment” and “West Virginia Fantasies,” the highly intricate suite showed their tremendous musicianship from the opening “Make Me Smile” through the closing reprise of “Make Me Smile.”

After pushing both the audience and themselves through the early portion of the night, they gave the fans exactly what they were seeking in the second half of the show. Starting with “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is,” the band delivered hit after hit, from ballads like “Hard To Say I’m Sorry” and “You’re The Inspiration” to more energetic songs such as “Beginnings” and, of course, “Saturday In The Park.”

Despite being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, Chicago still isn’t given credit for how successful they’ve really been. Until you see them come out and do a dozen songs in a row that you grew up with and you find yourself thinking, “I didn’t know they did this. I love this song!”

That’s exactly what they brought to the crowd the second half of the show. So, by the time the fireworks lit up the night sky as the band was playing a raucous “25 or 6 to 4” to close out the night, the band had struck a perfect balance of pleasing both themselves and the audience, the mark of a consummately professional act.