still great...

I went last night to hear them. My first (and only other) Earth, Wind & Fire concert was during college, almost 25 years ago. They've been making music for 30 years, so I've seen them at both ends of their career. Last night it was an outdoor concert, and it was fabulous. The weather was perfect--unusually for Richmond, the humidity was low and the temperature moderate. The sun went down early in the show, which gave their (fairly simple) light show a better chance to shine. (Maybe it was more elaborate than I could tell--I was standing off to one side and couldn't really see to the back of the stage at all...) There were three of the original members of the group there, with a great band--three (or was it four) drum sets, horns, guitar, keyboards, and assorted percussion. They played all their hits--Shining Star, Remember, Got To Get You Into My Life (vies for best cover ever with the Talking Heads version of Take Me To The River), After the Love is Gone, Boogie Wonderland, you name it. It was a really diverse crowd (also somewhat unusual for Richmond, though less so for these outdoor events), both racially and in terms of age: I saw grandmothers (a woman with a pacemaker was hoping it would be ok with all the bass reverberating in her chest), kids, middle-aged couples, teenagers. I went with a friend and we stood and danced all evening in the cool summer air. Philip Bailey, the soaring vocalist you remember, introduced the band at one point and it included his wife, who had just given birth to their son only 8 weeks ago. She looked fabulous.

When I saw EWF before it was a highly choreographed show, as I remember. I think they levitated someone at one point. They may not all have dressed the same but there was some uniformity to the look and definitely to the show. This felt like more of a jam session--old friends having fun with their music. It was a complete blast.