University of Virginia Library

MUSIC

Noise Pollution

By ROB PRITCHARD

If there is anything about
Chicago that stands above the
lower level of competence, it
must be their manager, Jim
Guercio. For without him,
Chicago would be hard pressed
to make the fraternity circuit.

In fact, I have seen poor
bands play "Twenty-five or Six
to Four" much better than did
Chicago Saturday night. And
that is not saying too much.

Opening the concert with
that song, the band followed
up a couple of standard vocal
repetitions with an extremely
boring and pointless interlude
which, judging from the crowd,
not only stopped any tapping
feet, but also caused a wave of
sleeping sickness.

Once the song had ended,
however, the audience came to
life, lending a few pats of the
hands to the widely scattered
pleas of "play so-and-so." But,
alas, Chicago evidently could
not tell what time it was and
broke right into "Good-bye"
a song they introduced, with
all due relevance, concerning
the plethora of environmental
problems facing our great
nation.

One can only wish that they
would concern themselves
more with noise pollution.
Fortunately, though, the sound
system in U Hall was not
overly loud. But then, neither
was it anything more than
adequate, tending to lose the
lower notes while distorting
the higher ones into unwanted
shrills and feedback.

I have heard many times that
Chicago is not as good in
concert as they are on records,
and their performance in U
Hall would certainly bear this
out. They were generally
ill-paced and poorly
disciplined, with more than a
few lapses during transitions,
which tended to destroy any
continuity their music could
project

It is indeed a tribute to
Chicago's producer that they
are as successful as they are,
for without Guercio's obvious
ability to create music in a
wasteland, the hand would still
he hooing the back alleys of
the Windy City.