Boston

Date: Tuesday, August 12, 2014
City: Springfield, IL
Venue: Illinois State Fair
Opening act(s): Sweet, April Wine
Headlining act: Boston

Sweet Setlist:

Hell Raiser
Action
Love Is Like Oxygen
Little Willy
Fox On The Run
Ballroom Blitz

Boston Setlist:

Rock And Roll Band
Smokin’
Feelin’ Satisfied
Last Day Of School
Life, Love, & Hope
Peace Of Mind
It’s Been Such A Long Time (Interlude)
Cool The Engines
Surrender To Me
Don’t Look Back
Something About You
Amanda
The Launch
More Than A Feeling
Guitar Solo/Instrumental
A New World
To Be A Man
Walk On
Foreplay/Long Time
———————
I Think I Like It
Party

Notes:

• First time seeing Sweet, April Wine, and Boston.
• Fifth concert at this venue and first in four years, breaking the ‘every five years’ pace. And I got in for free! Hence no ticket…
• Third time seeing songs Def Leppard has covered by the original artist, as Leppard covered Sweet’s “Action” on their 1993 album Retro Active and covered “Hell Raiser” on their 2006 covers album Yeah!.
• Show #5 at this venue; first since August 20, 2010.

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Review:

Thanks to a friend of my dad’s, we got into the concert for free. We found some decent seats and sat down, wondering if we’d get kicked out of them by people with actual tickets… But we didn’t!

April Wine was also on the bill, but surprisingly they were not the first band to take the stage… Instead, The Sweet hit the stage, opening with “Hell Raiser.” That was one of the main reasons I chose to go, was to see them (hopefully) play that song. Since Def Leppard failed to play it when I saw them in 2006, this is the next best thing.

The other reason I wanted to see Sweet followed, being “Action,” yet another song of theirs that Def Leppard has covered. It sounded excellent, but it was really weird to hear Sweet playing it live. As a kid, I had no idea the song was a cover, so I’ve really grown up knowing that one as a Leppard song.

That also makes four songs Leppard has covered that I’ve seen played live by the original artist: “Don’t Believe A Word” by Thin Lizzy, “Hanging On The Telephone” by Blondie,” and “Hell Raiser” & “Action” by Sweet. “Action” is the only one I’ve seen played live by both DL and the original artist.

Sweet continued their opening set with “Love Is Like Oxygen,” which has a really cool riff. Then came “Little Willy,” “Fox On The Run,” and of course, “Ballroom Blitz.”

I knew every song played, but that’s not hard to accomplish in such a short set.

After a short changeover, April Wine took the stage. I couldn’t have told you a single song of theirs prior to seeing them, and… I can’t really tell you a single song of theirs after seeing them either. They were fine musicians and all, but the band has very little stage presence and the songs all sounded the same to me. A couple sounded vaguely familiar, but nothing really stood out.

After the first couple of songs, I texted Brittany asking her if she wanted to sneak off to the bathroom to get it on until Boston took the stage. The third song April Wine played lasted so long we could have done it a few times before it even ended.

Their set included both a bass solo and a drum solo, neither of which were impressive and both that are generally unwelcome.

Boston didn’t take the stage until 10:00. I thought it was weird that a concert with three bands didn’t start until 8:00. Usually the fair, like most venues, has an 11:00 curfew. So I was expecting a fairly short set from Boston.

I was wrong.

They took the stage with “Rock And Roll Band,” which was followed by “Smokin’,” so two of their biggest hits were knocked out right away…

Another hit, “Feelin’ Satisfied” followed, before a couple of new songs were done. They weren’t bad. It was kind of funny how they were introduced, as Tom Scholz asked the crowd “Who thinks bands like us should keep recording new material?” He got a big response. “Well good, we just happened to have recently put a new album out!” Smaller response.

Not surprised.

The new ones were followed by another massive hit, “Peace Of Mind.” The band sounded really good, but the actual sound in the venue was crap as usual. It’s a terrible place for concerts. In fact, of all the places I’ve been to through my now 65 concerts, the Illinois State Fair Grandstand is the second worst (only behind The Vic Theatre in Chicago).

The set continued on with hits like “Don’t Look Back” and “Something About You” sprinkled in between songs I didn’t know as well or at all. There was a stretch near the end of the set that really lost my attention as it was full of songs I wasn’t familiar with. I don’t mind that because it’s stupid as hell to go to any concert of someone that you’re not a super fan of and expect to know every single song… Many times you can hear things you didn’t know and they can be quite good. But these songs were just stretching on way too long and included over indulgent solos. Again with the solos.

Unless you’re Eddie Van Halen or Neil Peart, there’s a 99% chance that you don’t need to be playing a solo.

By now it was well past 11:00 and the rides had shut down. The main set ended with “Foreplay/Long Time,” which sounded really good. The last several songs featured some chick from American Idol on backing vocals. She was kinda cute but was made more cute by being up there rocking out with a classic rock band like Boston.

After a quick encore, the band returned to play “I Think I Like It” and “Party.” I was checked out by that point though. I had seen way too many super extended songs I wasn’t crazy about, plus it was damn near midnight on a Tuesday when I had worked that day and had to work the next day too.

Still, it was a good show. I think it would have been better had April Wine either played first or not been on the bill at all. Sweet should have had a longer set time as they were really the best part of the night.

But at least I can say I’ve seen Sweet and Boston now. Whatever is left of them, at least.

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