“Chicago & Friends Director’s Cut” to Air on Fantracks Starting Dec. 16
- Steve Vai, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and Robert Randolph among guests
Chicago went back to its Transit Authority days for a pair of Chicago & Friends gigs, reminding themselves and late-coming fans the band once specialized in full-bore rock ‘n’ roll.
“If you didn’t listen to Chicago, man, you know, you weren’t hip,” James Pankow says in the trailer for the forthcoming “Chicago & Friends - Director’s Cut.”
There was a time that was true. And on Nov. 17 and 18 in New Jersey, it was true again.
Here’s Robert Randolph playing the solo and singing the long-in-dry-dock “Listen.”
There’s Steve Vai tapping his way through the even rarer “Poem 58.”
And just listen to Christone “Kingfish” Ingram recreating Terry Kath’s “Make Me Smile” solo.
Chris Daughtry, VoicePlay and Robin Thicke are among the other guests in the preview.
So forget about the waving cellphones in “Hard to Say I’m Sorry;” check out Vai playing “25 or 6 to 4” the way it was meant to be played.