Chicago

[geminix]

For those of you that like Chicago, if you want to hear a REALLY GOOD tribute band, take a listen to these guys. They are called Brass Transit. They sound more like Chicago than the current Chicago does, especially on the older tunes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoEgbj3H ... re=related

[Maui Tom]

For those of you that like Chicago, if you want to hear a REALLY GOOD tribute band, take a listen to these guys. They are called Brass Transit. They sound more like Chicago than the current Chicago does, especially on the older tunes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoEgbj3H ... re=related

REALLY good.....

[Ehwmatt]

I can't imagine seeing Chicago now without Champlin, Scheff with no voice, and Lamm on his last vocal leg. The band definitely died when Champlin quit. The last time I saw them (with Champlin), they had some stand-ins on the horns and not the original members. Lame as fuck.

Great band, but probably time to hang it up.

[geminix]

I actually just saw them in a concert on HDNet about a month ago. There were some high points, not many. The new guy they replaced Bill Champlin with (Lou Pardini) does a decent job on the Kath vocals but he doesnt do all of the Kath vocals. Loughnane actually sang Color My World and that was horrible. I'm surprised they did Dialogue. That was beyond horrible with Scheff, who you can hardly hear because his voice is toast. Robert Lamm actually sang quite well. His songs never really required any vocal acrobatics anyway. I probably would still go see them live, only because I never have before. Maybe before I die, Cetera will come back for a final reunion tour before they hang it up for good. He's in his mid 60s and can still sing better than Scheff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ursyJA5h ... re=related

[Ehwmatt]

I actually just saw them in a concert on HDNet about a month ago. There were some high points, not many. The new guy they replaced Bill Champlin with (Lou Pardini) does a decent job on the Kath vocals but he doesnt do all of the Kath vocals. Loughnane actually sang Color My World and that was horrible. I'm surprised they did Dialogue. That was beyond horrible with Scheff, who you can hardly hear because his voice is toast. Robert Lamm actually sang quite well. His songs never really required any vocal acrobatics anyway. I probably would still go see them live, only because I never have before. Maybe before I die, Cetera will come back for a final reunion tour before they hang it up for good. He's in his mid 60s and can still sing better than Scheff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ursyJA5h ... re=related

Lamm is definitely in the best shape of the remaining members. He's just got that smokey lower voice that doesn't wear much. I shouldn't have described him as "on his last legs." I guess I was referring more to his age.

Scheff was a very good studio replacement for Cetera for a while, but he's done now. And he was never fabulous live.

BTW, Peter does indeed still sound good. But he does downtune, and last I heard Chicago live, they don't (for what it's worth).

[G.I.Jim]

It is DEFINITELY time for Peter to replace Jason. He just sounds horrible now, and unless they replace him, I'm done with the band. Peter may be singing a little lower, but he still sounds incredible! I would love to him rejoin the band and put out another album with Foster writing and producing it.

[Hollywood]

Scheff's voice is fine actually. Better than fine really. He sounds great. Problem is that he never had a voice to replace Cetera. It just wasn't a good fit as a sound a like guy. He sounds great on the stuff he sang, but they do not play those songs anymore. And his ability to sing Cetera's material has only gotten worse with age. He still sings on tons of records for back ups. High profile records. And when they were still playing stuff off of XXX live he sounded great.

[G.I.Jim]

Scheff's voice is fine actually. Better than fine really. He sounds great. Problem is that he never had a voice to replace Cetera. It just wasn't a good fit as a sound a like guy. He sounds great on the stuff he sang, but they do not play those songs anymore. And his ability to sing Cetera's material has only gotten worse with age. He still sings on tons of records for back ups. High profile records. And when they were still playing stuff off of XXX live he sounded great.

Are you being serious? THIS guy sounds better than Jason...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8U3tDQFINo

[AR]

One of the few bands I've never seen live. My brother went this year and said he really enjoyed the show. I'm not doubting the criticisms about some of the vocals I'm reading here. However Journey fans (of which there are many here) are way harder on singers than average concert goers who half the time don't notice or even care about vocal issues.

[JohnH]

The best band I've seen this year was this one:

http://chicagotributeauthority.com/home.htm

They ended the concert in the park series in Dana Point in August. Absolutely totally perfect and put a great show on as well. I was blown away and impressed and loved every minute of it! The concert series this year started with a really awful Stevie Nicks tribute- (the band was completely out of synch and tune with each other- the Stevie character was fine- her band sucked! ) and ended on an amazing high note.

[geminix]

Scheff's voice is fine actually. Better than fine really. He sounds great. Problem is that he never had a voice to replace Cetera. It just wasn't a good fit as a sound a like guy. He sounds great on the stuff he sang, but they do not play those songs anymore. And his ability to sing Cetera's material has only gotten worse with age. He still sings on tons of records for back ups. High profile records. And when they were still playing stuff off of XXX live he sounded great.

Really? Far from great. You said it yourself. His ability to sing Cetera's stuff has only gotten worse with age. That is the point. When he joined the band 25 years ago he sounded great, I'll give you that. He's lost his range. I'm not faulting the guy, he's been singing these songs longer than Cetera's tenure in the band. And ANYBODY can sound good on a record, especially these days

[marco17]

Liked Chicago a lot until Champlin left. He was really the only one left who wanted the band to be something more than a tribute to itself. No doubt these guys are great musicians, but I've seen them enough times to know that they are all about their 70's heyday, and the originals (when they are all there) run away from most of their 80's and early 90's hits. From some things I read, though it may just be speculation, some of Champlin's beefs were that they hardly ever mixed up their set, they didn't do much more than Look Away or You're Not Alone for the tracks that he sang lead on after being with the band 20+ years (or it was a 5 minute montage of them), they started telling him to tone down the way he sang some of the Kath tracks, and they really did not want to keep producing anything new. So, after that they all decided it was time to part ways. I think Chicago needs to do a couple retirement/farewell dates, get all the guys back for a couple shows, do the hits from all the eras, toss it on a DVD to make some extra cash, and call it a day.

[Abitaman]

I like Jason Scheff. Even to this day he sounds good. I have all of Chicago's cds including the Nashville re-recordings, which by the way sound great. I find myself liking the mid 80's and up era of the band the best.
Check out all the solo stuff by the band, all of it is pretty good.
Cetera started strong but faded fast
Lamm, not a huge fan, but his work is constient
Champlin is the one who comes out on top solid all the way through.
Scheff one cd and bunch of side projects all good, but that one solo cd is awesome.

The band hasn"t died yet, but they need to get in the studio with there new people and record.

[brandonx76]

Speaking of Champlin...check out this recent show he did with a huge band / orchestra...great material from his solo career. This should be released on DVD, it's a full show available for streaming, so enjoy

http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/815649/

[Abitaman]

Check this out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_tSqJ0z9c8
Jason Scheff - Stairway to heaven (a capella)

Awesome!!!!