Published on July 16th, 2022 | by Darren Paltrowitz
0A Look At Chicago & Brian Wilson’s Jones Beach Show + Chicago’s New Album “Born For This Moment”
With more than 100 million albums sold worldwide, in addition to being in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the multi-GRAMMY Award-winning band Chicago has been hailed by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the “most important bands in music since the dawn of the rock and roll era.” A rock & roll band with horns like no other — past or present — Chicago is also the highest-charting American band within the “Top 125 Artists Of All Time” list published by Billboard Magazine. Chicago recently received The Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the GRAMMYS and was previously inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame in 2014, while founding Chicago band members Robert Lamm and James Pankow were both inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 2017.
To date, Chicago has scored 21 Top 10 singles, 5 consecutive #1 albums, 11 #1 singles and 5 Gold singles, with a total of 48 gold and platinum awards. But Chicago — as comprised of original members Robert Lamm on keyboards and vocals, Lee Loughnane on trumpet and vocals and James Pankow on trombone, along with Ray Herrmann on sax and flute, Wally Reyes, Jr. on drums, Neil Donell on vocals, Ramon “Ray” Yslas on percussion, Tony Obrohta on guitar, Loren Gold on keyboards and vocals, and Eric Baines on bass and vocals — is definitely not just resting on these accomplishments. Last month, multi-GRAMMY-award-winning, Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame band Chicago announced its 38th studio album, Born For This Moment, which hit stores on July 15, 2022 via the BMG label. In advance of the album’s release, the advance-released single “If This Is Goodbye” began climbing the charts.
In support of Born For This Moment — as produced by Joe Thomas and featuring 14 new original songs — Chicago is currently on the road alongside Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson; Wilson’s backing band includes fellow Beach Boys co-founder Al Jardine and long-time Beach Boys sideman Blondie Chaplain. The tour kicked off last month at the Ak-Chin Pavilion in Phoenix, Arizona. Last night, I had the pleasure of catching the tour at Wantagh, New York’s Jones Beach Amphitheater. Below are videos filmed from the performances of both Chicago and Brian Wilson, in addition to the music video for “If This Is Goodbye,” which was performed during the show. Amazingly, as pointed out by Chicago band members during the show, 2022 marks the group’s 55th year as a touring and recording entity. Simply put, they are one of the tightest live bands I have ever seen, and one of the few bands who can effortlessly fill a 105-minute set with hits while still not having performed every charting hit of theirs.
More on Chicago, Born For This Moment and the band’s current tour with Wilson — which continues through July 26, 2022 — can be found online by clicking here, here, here, here and here.