UPDATE: Peter Cetera is the Inspiration

Last night Heather and I saw Peter Cetera and Tuna Fruit Goddamn was it awesome! Here's a little rundown of the night's events:

Let me start off by saying that several years ago Heather and I saw Chicago play at the Waikiki Shell. We both like the music of Chicago and were pretty excited to go. Sadly, we only found out Peter Cetera would not be performing with Chicago that night after the concert started. Needless to say, we were pretty disappointed. I mean come on, Chicago without Peter Cetera is pretty much just a Chicago cover band. So when we took our seats just before the show started and saw the giant projector screen set up behind the symphony, we started getting kind of antsy. We double checked the fine print on the program to make sure that it did not read " The Honolulu Symphony welcomes Peter Cetera, via satellite". Luckily, it did not.

Shortly after we arrived the show began. The symphony played an introductory number and local phenomenon, Matt Catingub, made his appearance. Much to the chagrin of Heather and I, he announced the first half of the performance would be Cetera-less. In the symphony's defense, the pieces they played were pretty great. They did a medley of 70's sitcom theme songs that was pretty fantastic. The medley included the themes to The Brady Bunch, Sanford and Son, M.A.S.H., and The Love Boat. But once you have the idea that you are about to see Peter Cetera play in you head, any minor delay becomes an annoyance.

After a twenty-five minute intermission, the concert started up again. This time the symphony started off by playing a medley of hits made popular by Cetera, many of which were listed in my previous post. Then, Peter made his entrance and started off the night by playing Restless Heart. And I got to tell you, from that point forward it was just one hit after another. Cetera did not pull the old, I'm coming out with a new album so here is a bunch of new songs you don't know trick. He totally kept it real.

Unsurprisingly, he sings with a lot of passion. His second song in the set was Glory of Love, and possibly my favorite part of the concert came when during the infamous "like a knight in shining armor" line he picked up the microphone stand, pointed it towards the audience, and swept it across the crowd trying to look each person in the eye. When he say's he'll be the hero you've been dreaming of, he totally means it. It was pure cheesy, cliched goodness!

Midway through the concert, Peter broke out the home movies. Apparently, he had recently come across some old footage from his early days with Chicago. Although I did appreciate seeing the footage that is probably unavailable elsewhere, it kind of felt like I was watching one of those Time Life Music infomercials. In any case, it was kind of a nice humorous moment seeing Cetera in his shoulder length blonde hair and pink satin jumpsuit.

Another nice moment came when Cetera brought his daughter, Claire, out on stage to help sing on a few songs. Claire had an excellent voice, but we did question a few of the song choices for the duet. Next Time I Fall did not really seems to be an appropriate choice for a father-daughter duo. I was praying they would not launch it a version of Afternoon Delight. Luckily, they did not.

This is turning into a long post, so my final comment will be on the performance of the hit You're the Inspiration. Peter explained to the audience that whenever they originally played the song, it would inspire the waiving of lighters. So he requested we all pull out our cell phones to recreate the moment. We were instructed to waive the cell phones when he pointed to us. Now since they audience was largely of an older generation (Heather and I concluded we were likely the youngest people in the audience to have purchased tickets), they were largely unfamiliar with the practice. It was cute to see people amazed at the effect the phones created. It was also a nice way to keep the concert interactive.

All in all, Peter Cetera=Totally Glorious.