Summer Road Trip 2024
I’d seen REO Speedwagon in concert a couple of times in the past but they were all in the last century. I had never seen Train in concert but I do like their music and I did see them live on TV once, which convinced me that I needed to see them in concert. When they both made a Summer Road Trip together to the KIA Forum, I decided this is the time to do it, so I got tickets for me and my concert comadre.
We entered the Forum near the end of Yacht Rock Revue’s opening act. They are a cover band that does ‘80s hits. It made a good warm up for the show. More importantly, we got a preview of just how great the sound reinforcement system at the Forum is now. It sounded much better than the sound system at the Honda Center, where we’d seen a show a couple of months prior, and even better than when I was last at the Forum in 2019. This was going to be a good time!
REO Speedwagon took the stage first. Kevin Cronin, who has been the lead singer for over fifty years, still fronts the band at age 72. Although they took a couple of the songs down a step or two so that Kevin could still hit the high notes, he sounded great for the first half of the show. It sounded like his voice began to tire in the second half of the show but still strong enough to deliver a respectable and entertaining show. Besides, he had just performed a full concert the night before in San Francisco, so who am I to fault him while he’s still rocking out at his age.
The rest of the band was solid as a rock. They were well rehearsed and it showed. The instrumentals and the vocals were all very tight. Their set included all the beautiful vocal harmonies you expect to hear from REO Speedwagon. They played all their biggest hits, which are too numerous to list but you know which ones they are, so no longtime fans were left wanting.
Train came down the tracks last. Train is a generation younger than REO Speedwagon but their vocalist Pat Monahan is 55 years old. Regardless, he can still hit all the high notes flawlessly (and there are many in Train’s repertoire). Pat kept the energy high throughout the show and his voice never flagged. In fact, he managed to catch fans’ smartphones, take selfies, and sing “If It’s Love” all at the same time without ever missing a note.
The surprise of the night was when Pat brought his twelve-year-old son Rock out on stage. Rock sang the lead to a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Over the Hills and Far Away”. There must be a genetic component to vocal talent because Rock hit every one of Robert Plant’s notes perfectly. Kevin Cronin also joined Train on the stage for a mash-up of “Meet Virginia” and “The Joker” (by Steve Miller). And Cheat Codes, a group I was not familiar with, joined Train on stage for one of their songs. Rock and Yacht Rock Revue rejoined the stage with Train to cover “Hotel California” near the end of the concert.
Train opened their set with “Calling All Angels” and closed the show with “Drops of Jupiter”. In between, they performed all of their other hits that I wanted to hear. The entire band was tight instrumentally and well rehearsed. Their vocal harmonies sounded great. All in all, it was a very enjoyable concert experience and a good time was had by all.
The Progressive Zone 