My wife and I attended the Danny Seraphine & CTA concert with guests "Leonid & Friends" at the Arcada Theater in St. Charles, IL on July 12, 2019. You can see me circled in yellow in the last photo. I borrowed the image from Leonid & Friend's Facebook page. It was taken from the stage. My wife was sitting to my right but wasn't standing at the time the photo was taken.
Here's my review of the evening:
The Arcada Theater needs air conditioning! It was HOT in there! If the audience was hot, I can't imagine how hot it was up on stage! The theater is old and it's hard to believe it can pass code in my opinion. Only two urinals and one toilet in the mens room and my wife reported that there were only two toilets in the ladies room. Considering how many people were at the concert, how can that possibly be up to code? Tightly packed seats and narrow aisles too... yikes!
Anyway, Danny Seraphine (former drummer for the group "Chicago") took the stage with his group CTA (California Transit Authority). Danny always liked the name CTA when he was in Chicago, but the group had to change their name from Chicago Transit Authority to simply Chicago to avoid being sued. So of course, when he started his new band, he kept the name CTA changing the C from Chicago to California.
For a guy who is 70 years old, Danny can still play drums like he did when he was younger! I recall seeing him play with Chicago in 1976 and have always thought he was the best drummer I had ever seen (shy of Buddy Rich whom I saw when in high school). He's still got it as far as I'm concerned and last night proved it.
However, the theater had a bunch of problems making it nearly impossible to enjoy CTA's performance. The front of house sound was simply terrible. The keyboardist had to complain several times to the sound guys that his keyboard wasn't functioning properly. We could barely hear the horn section most of the time. The lead singer wasn't on pitch many times and I think that's probably because he couldn't hear a good mix of the other instruments playing. It's not that his range wasn't good because it was... he just couldn't hit the right pitch many times! Danny's drums was obviously featured, but because of this, he was way too loud compared to the rest of the group. The bass player's notes were not tight or distinct, leaving it mostly sounding muddy and boomy. The guitarist while talented, just didn't appeal to me when he played.
It was a pity because they played a number of old Chicago tunes that I had hoped would be good and of course, when Leonid and Friends came out to play later, they couldn't play them again since they were already covered by CTA. I found myself hoping the set would finish to take me out of the misery of hearing the band that others had said were great... but wasn't that evening.
Danny's drumming however, was awesome. He's got every bit of talent at 70 as he did when I heard him in 1976. I'm glad I got to hear him one more time after all these years. He had several drum solos within the songs and it really showed how good he was even at his current age. Between songs, he made fun of himself being old and losing his hair. He told a story of the time when he was still in Chicago and played with a toupee on only to have it being blown around during an outdoor event. Somehow, he was able to keep it on, but it was embarrassing and he couldn't wait to get off stage. He finally finished playing and rushed to get off the stage and the other guys from Chicago followed him. Shortly after they left, the storm had knocked down the light trussing directly over the drums. That bad toupee saved his life! Watch the video of him telling the story below.
After CTA finished their set, the stage crew re-set the stage with Leonid & Friends' equipment. They must have either had a better sound guy or fixed the issues with the sound because they came out sounding so much better than CTA's sound. This is a Russian cover band that copies nearly 100% accurately the songs from Chicago and the arrangements from the actual albums. They played "deep tracks" of songs I knew from some of the early Chicago albums that obviously Chicago never played live after recording them! It was amazing!
Now this group did not go on without their share of problems that evening. During one of the early numbers, the horn section came in earlier than they should have (it was during the song "I'm A Man"). One of the guys realized it and tried in vain to get the horns to stop and get back into the tune during the right time, but it was too late. Rather than explain later that they had made a mistake, they just simply laughed it off to each other during the number and then jumped in when it was correct. That's the professional thing to do. Don't draw more attention to the mistake by saying something about it. I learned this lesson early on from my music instructors. Never say a word and keep going.
Now I do believe they also couldn't hear themselves properly because when their lead singer sang several songs, he couldn't hear well enough to hit the right pitch either. I know he can do it though as you can hear his high tenor voice hit those notes easily on the studio recording videos they have on YouTube. Just look up "Leonid & Friends" on YouTube to see and hear all their great videos.
Still, overall, they sounded so good that I would have to agree with others that perhaps they sound better today than the actual group Chicago! Their musicianship was top notch. Everything was overall, very good. Tight clean bass from Leonid played through a Mark Bass amplifier that sounded like Peter Cetera was playing the lines. Copied nearly note for note accurately. The guitarist (who is also a great lead singer) played Terry Kath's solos nearly perfectly note for note too. The horn arrangement were spot on as well.
Now many musicians will tell you that copying arrangements note for note and not being original is not a good thing. Having your own arrangement of cover songs is the way to go. But in this case, since this is a "tribute" band covering songs by Chicago, doing a total "copy" is a good thing. You couldn't help doing a mental comparison of their sound to Chicago's sound back in the day. The current group Chicago has lost so many members that currently, only Robert Lamm (keyboards, vocals), James Pankow (trombone) and Lee Loughnane (Trumpet) remain in the group. Walter Parazaider (sax, flute) only joins them occasionally on albums now from what I understand, due to health issues. Because of this, could it be that this Russian tribute band, "Leonid & Friends" is the better way to hear those great old songs from Chicago? I'm beginning to think so.
There were a total of 11 members in the group. One major change from Chicago is the addition of Ksenia Buzina. Definitely a visual stunner, she added a lot to the upper vocals and gave the audience some nice change of visuals to look at rather than just a bunch of guys on the stage. The first time I saw her on the videos, I had to ask myself, "Is that REALLY what Chicago would have done? Add a woman to the group?" But over time, I got to thinking this was a very smart move on the Russian group's part. The original Chicago group wasn't really much to look at even when they played in the 60's and 70's. They just stood there and played their instruments and sang. Rather "boring" to watch... but you didn't care because the sound was so good. But with the Russian group, she added some change to all that. Plus, the antics from their horn section also kept you entertained! These guys just have a fun time on stage when performing!
Ksenia was a finalist on TV's "The Voice" and is popular in both Russia and China! But she's relatively unknown in the USA. Still, her presence adds to the group's appeal and that's a good thing in my opinion.
A nice bonus was the song, "September" from Earth, Wind & Fire! I was hoping they would also play "Spinning Wheel" from Blood, Sweat & Tears, but unfortunately, they did not. If you want to hear it though, just look them up on YouTube. They have a video of it and it's great!
Overall, I'd go see Leonid & Friends again if given the chance... as long as they are playing in a theater that has air conditioning and a better sound engineer or sound system! Be sure to go see them if you get a chance!
The encore had both groups playing together. Saturday In The Park and "25 or 6 to 4" finished the concert, cramming the stage with a lot of people! Afterwards, the groups did a selfie from the stage and you can see me in the photo above, circled in yellow!
Photos were taken with my "point and shoot" camera, the Canon G7xMkII. No "pro" cameras with removable lenses were allowed in, although I did see a couple of people using them. Perhaps they were sanctioned by the groups to take those photos.
Enjoy!
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The videos below are not mine, but I thought I'd embed them here since they are from the same concert I went to. Taken by another YouTuber.
