REO Speedwagon Rocks the QuickChek NJ Festival of Ballooning

By: Robert Cavuoto

It was a beautiful sunny day at the Solberg Airport in Readington, New Jersey, on Saturday, July 27^th, for the 2013 QuickChek NJ Festival of Ballooning.

On tap for tonight’s headline show was none other than ’80s classic rockers, REO Speedwagon.

If you recall, REO Speedwagon had a huge impact on the music and the culture of rock and roll in the 1980s; their album, Hi Infidelity, produced four hit singles, sold ten million records and remained on the charts for 65 weeks, 15 of which were spent at #1, a feat not likely to be attained in music today.

As evening set in, lead singer Kevin Cronin told the packed crowd that there were 100,000 people in attendance at the festival. There were people as far at the eye could see, scattered between the event seating and the lawn.

By show time, the wind began to pick-up and the colorful array of hot air balloons was an amazing site, with the balloons flying low overhead, a spectacular backdrop for the band as they started to play.

The sound radiating from the band was spot on. It was as though I was listening to their CD at high volume. The wide open stage provided Kevin and his mates plenty of room to entertain their fans close up, as well as to fans that were a far reach from the stage.

There was a tremendous camaraderie between the members in the band, guitarist Dave Amato, bassist Bruce Hall, keyboardist Neal Doughty and drummer Bryan Hitt all played off of each other nicely and each received their time in the spot light during the night.

But, Kevin truly owned the stage and showed the fans he is a charismatic frontman with his tremendous vocal abilities, his guitar and keyboard playing.

During the performance, there was a nice mix of hits, coupled with some of the band’s rarer songs for the diehard fans in attendance.  Stand out songs of the night included “Don’t Let Him Go”, “Take it on the Run”, “Roll with the Changes” and “Time for Me to Fly”. The song that brought down the house as expected was; “Can’t Fight This Feeling”.

Mid-way through the set bassist, Bruce Hall, took reign of the lead vocals and did a fantastic version of “Back on the Road Again” from their 1979 LP, Nine Lives.

After Saturday night’s show I think most in attendance could agree REO Speedwagon still embraces the fun and excitement it did decades ago. Even the hot-aired Elvis gave them a standing ovation!

GALLERY