Tag / World Music Theatre

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Travelling The 50 States – Illinois

Over my 47 years, I’ve done my fair share of travelling across these United States.  I thought it would be an interesting experiment go look back at those trips to each of the 31 states I have visited (62% isn’t bad, is it?) and see if, and when, I may be returning.  Working in alphabetical order, we continue today with the 21st state to be added to the Union: Illinois.

State: Illinois
Joined the Union: 1818
Visits: 16,000+

How do you track how often you’ve been in the state you’ve lived in your entire life, save for your time away at college?  My first “visit” came nearly 48 years ago on the day I was born at Mercy Hospital on the south side of Chicago.

I’ve managed to do 18 of the Bicentennial Bucket List: 200 Things To Do In Illinois, published by the Chicago Tribune in 2018 to celebrate the best the state has to offer in history, food, architecture, culture, sports, nature, drink, and oddities.  Among the places I visited were Water Tower, Morton Arboretum, Route 66, United Center, Skydeck at Willis Tower, the former Arlington International Racecourse, Rialto Square Theatre, Lake Michigan, The Second City, Chicago Sports Museum, and the Superman statue in downstate Metropolis.

I’ve seen baseball games at Wrigley Field, Comiskey Park, and Guaranteed Rate Field.  I’ve seen football games at Soldier Field, Memorial Stadium, Ryan Field, and Wrigley Field.  I’ve seen basketball games at the United Center, Welsh-Ryan Arena, State Farm Center, and Allstate Arena.  I’ve seen hockey games at the United Center.  I’ve seen both the White Sox and the Cubs win the World Series.  I’ve seen the Bears win a Super Bowl.  I’ve seen the Bulls win 6 NBA Championships.  I’ve even seen the Blackhawks win a Stanley Cup or two.

I’ve seen concerts at Wrigley Field, City Winery, Ravinia, the Riviera Theatre, Abbey Pub, Metro, the Chicago Theatre, United Center, Charter One Pavilion, Allstate Arena, The Vic Theatre, House of Blues, World Music Theatre, Soldier Field, and Mabel’s,

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Concert Flashback: Aerosmith

94aerosmithWith summer winding down and just a few weeks before it was time to head back down to college, Aerosmith and Jackyl rolled in to the World Music Theatre.  I don’t really remember who came along to this show, but my guess is that the usual band of suspects were there,  I’m going to be completely honest and say I don’t remember much of anything about this show at all.

Jackyl opened up the show and, based on their setlist, it wouldn’t have been too exciting.  Of their 8 song set, I’ve only heard of 2 of the songs, and only really liked 1 of them.

Looking back at Aerosmith’s setlist from the night in question, I’m struck more by the songs they didn’t play than the ones they did.  They managed to get 8 songs from their latest album into the show, which meant there was no room for older favorites like What It Takes, Angel, and Back In The Saddle, to name a few.  Beyond those 8, it was a pretty good mix of songs from their initial 70s heyday and their post-Run DMC resurrection.

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Concert Flashback: Def Leppard

93defleppardA mere month after the Bon Jovi show, the group got back together and headed to the World Music Theatre to see Def Leppard and Ugly Kid Joe.  While I don’t remember anything about this, school would have been back in session, so Scott and I would have had to drive up from college for the weekend in order to attend this show.  While Def Leppard was certainly the draw, I would be lying if I said seeing Ugly Kid Joe wasn’t an added bonus.  Sadly, lead singer Whitfield Crane had other plans and managed to get himself arrested the night before in Columbus, Ohio after allegedly encouraging the crowd to attack the security guards.  Of course, we were not aware of this until we showed up to the World.

So, two members of local band Enuff Z’nuff were recruited to open the show with what I remember being an acoustic set.  To this day, I can’t name an Enuff Z’nuff song, so I can’t say that they made much of an impression.  The Internet tells me that they may have done a cover of the Beatles Revolution.

My main memory of the Def Leppard portion of the show is lead singer Joe Elliot trying to curry favor with the crowd by wearing a Chicago Bulls t-shirt.  Judging by the setlist posted on the Interwebs, it was a pretty solid show, with all of their big hits being covered, including their latest from the Last Action Hero soundtrack.  Given my fandom for the band at the time, I’m glad I got the chance to see them live.  And, all these years later, I would rather have the story of Ugly Kid Joe missing the show than having actually seen them.

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Concert Flashback: Bon Jovi II

93bonjovi-2Less than 5 months since their last Chicago appearance, Bon Jovi returned to the area, this time at the World Music Theatre in beautiful Tinley Park.  This time they had Extreme on board as their opening act.  If I had to guess, I would say the guest list for this show included my sister, Scott, Tracie, Courtney, and, probably, Mike.  It was either this show or the next one where Mike managed to fall asleep between the openers and the main performers, while a Metallica song was blasting over the speakers.

Extreme opened up the show with a 12 song set, apparently, which were 10 more songs than anyone was looking to hear.  The strange thing was that they didn’t close out their set with their two hits, but rather wrapped them around a bunch of other songs nobody cares about to this day.  Eventually, the boys from New Jersey came out and, according to the Interwebs, played mostly the same set as their March appearance, although with 2 fewer songs, despite the additional $.25 in the ticket price.

Nothing particularly interesting sticks out about the show, other than the possible sleeping incident.  After seeing Bon Jovi twice in under 5 months, I haven’t seen them again in the 20 years since.