Kansas in Dallas Pennsylvania (August 12th)

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   I flew home from a trip to China on Wednesday and then had to fly down to Atlanta on Thursday, arriving home Friday morning before leaving Saturday morning for Europe.  In between I had enough time at home to swap out suitcases, mow my lawn, and catch a Kansas concert.  Well worth the ensuing jet lag.  
Kansas appeared at Misericordia College's 'Under the Stars' summer concert series in Dallas Pennsylvania.  Hard to believe I live in a town of about 6,000 people and Kansas showed up to play just 500 yards from my front door!

This is the first time I've seen the Williams/Ehart/Greer/Ragsdale/Manion/Platt/Rizvi lineup.  I was skeptical but have to say the band sounded and looked better than I've seen them in quite some time, and I've seen them six times in just the past fifteen years (eight times total dating to the late seventies).  Ronnie Platt sounds and acts a lot like Steve Walsh but given he's quite a bit younger than Walsh and appears to have taken a bit better care of himself, he can hit a lot of the notes Walsh wasn't able to in his last few years with the band.

The crowd was small and mostly my age (50+), but I was pleasantly surprised at the number of teens and 20-somethings who were there and mouthing along to many of the songs - and not just 'Carry on' and 'Dust'!  Two of my sons made the trek home from college and along with assorted their girlfriends, my wife and some other hangers-on we had a decent entourage trekking over the grassy knoll for the outdoor concert.  There was a torrential rainstorm about three hours before the show but things cleared up by the time the band came out and the night was a bit muggy but overall pretty pleasant except for the drone that hung above us for most of the show despite every effort from the campus police to locate its owner.

The set list was interesting.  I was a little surprised that 1) there were no previews from the upcoming new album 'The Prelude Implicit', 2) there were no songs from 'Somewhere to Elsewhere', and 3) there were more 80s tunes than I expected.  Overall though the band sounded tight.  They clearly enjoyed themselves and interacted with the crowd more than the last few times I've seen them.  Zak Rizvi finally gives Rich Williams some relief from having to play both lead and rhythm guitar, something he did the last few years but had to be taxing on him.  And BTW Rich has lost a ton of weight and looks as good as I've seen him since probably the eighties.  

Point of Know Return
Paradox
Play the Game Tonight
The Wall
Reason to Be (great version!)
Dust in the Wind
Miracles out of Nowhere
Icarus - Borne on Wings of Steel
Closet Chronicles
Hold On
Down the Road
He Knew
Sparks of the Tempest
Fight Fire with Fire (why?)
Carry on my Wayward Son (encore)

Dave Manion is not the same caliber of keyboardist as Steve Walsh, but he was pretty good and seemed to be having a great time on stage.  Phil Ehart was rock solid as usual, and Ragsdale's violin is as good as it has ever been despite a bit of a rough patch early when he seemed to have a bit of a struggle getting into the groove.  Billy Greer interacted with the crowd a lot, picking up the slack from what Robbie Steinhardt used to do when he was still with the band.

Some of the old stuff like 'Closet Chronicles' and 'He Knew' hasn't aged all that well and I can sort of understand why some European prog fans don't have the same level of respect for the band as North and South Americans do, but it was still a treat to hear those old tunes and watch all the tipsy old men and women boogying down at the front of the stage.  The highlight of the evening IMHO was a ripping version of 'Down the Road' that totally threw off the younger crowd but had old geezers like me bouncing in our seats and air-guitaring with abandon 

All in all a great evening, small crowd (maybe 2,000) but well worth the time and I can say with confidence that if you are still a fan you will more than likely enjoy seeing this lineup if you get a chance.

Carry on!