A 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.

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Tags: Al Jardine, BMG, Brian Wilson, Chicago, Jones Beach, New York, The Beach Boys

About the Author

Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."