Review of Pat Benatar, Reo Speedwagon, and Edwin Mccain

Tonight I made it up to Red Rocks for the annual Kool concert. This year featured the likes of Reo Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, with opener Edwin Mccain.

Edwin Mccain took the stage at 730 and didn't stop sucking until about 30 minutes later. He played the songs you knew he would play such as I'll Be and I Could Not Ask For More. He struggled to hit some of the higher notes in his songs and told stories that weren't funny. The 30 minutes felt more like 2 hours. I'm pretty sure everyone was happy when he said it was his last song, but can't be too certain.

After the terrible performance by the talentless one, it was time for Pat Benatar....or so we thought. The music between sets was from an old radio show right when High Infidelity was about to drop. The DJ was talking about Mtv just hitting the air, and an interview with Kevin of Reo Speedwagon. After a few songs played, Kevin called the station and told the DJ that he was so confident about the music that he could drop the needle anywhere and play the whole thing. At that moment, Reo Speedwagon took the stage and performed the entire album. They didn't stop there, they also threw in some history of what was going on after High Infidelity and talked about Live Aid and what song was number 1 at that time for them. They played I Can't Fight This Feeling at that point. They played for about another 45 minutes after that and closed with Riding The Storm Out. I do have to say one thing, these guys have been playing since 1971 and were running around like they just started a few years ago. The entire band was energetic the entire set. It seriously makes me happy to see people at the age of retirement with so much energy. The sound during a few of the songs seemed to fade in and out, but it was corrected quickly.

After Reo Speedwagon came Pat Benatar. I considered seeing her last year when she played at the Gothic but skipped it because the tickets were what I thought was a lot for just her. I regret that decision after tonight. I forgot about 10 songs that she played. It really felt like every time she would sing a new song I would say Oh yeah, I love that song. She played for about 90 minutes as well covering every last hit she has had, closing with Heartbreaker.

The crowd here was simply amazing. There were so many people of all ages dancing all night long. Even while we were leaving people were friendly and actually let people merge which made it easy to leave. All in all, this was money well spent. Maybe next time they stick to the two main headliners and not have a shitty opening act.