Chicago (actually Rosement) Show - June 26, 2009

Regretfully I must say I was quite disappointed and have to say this was the worst concert I ever attended. It's been two days since the concert was over and my ear drums are still in pain.

The sound level was ear-piercing - I would say upwards of 125 db. The performances were great but many people in the audience, like me, sat there with our fingers in our ears the whole show. If I had wanted to abuse my body, I could think of no better way.

On a lesser note, roadies continually ran back/forth on stage readjusting equipment and, for some unknown reason, kept running back from one side of the stage to the other without stopping to adjust something. They were running on stage dozens of times each number.

A note to the stage crew. Maybe you could wear all black clothing so you blend in with the background. Maybe then you won't be so distracting to the audience.

Maybe people heard about the lack of professionalism on this tour and that's why less than one-seventh of the seats were sold for this show. ABC, Berlin and Wang Chung deserved much better treatment than this. I've never seen such an empty theater for a concert in my life!

I think Waukegan , Il is being a little extreme in his/her comments: "worst show ever attended", "ear splitting volume", "[roadies] running on stage dozens of times each number" and ""one-seventh of the seats were sold". I was at the show and none of these were the case. I was in the orchestra pit five feet from the stage and the volume was normal for a concert. Roadies came on to fix things and adjust instruments (or to dance in a towel for Terri's birthday) but otherise were not just doing laps around the stage for exercise. The show was not well attended but most of the main floor, but for the corners, were eventually filled in and some scattering in the balcony. It was probably between 33-45% full. As far as the worst show you have ever seen - I can't comment on what you have seen otherwise, but all of the bands put on a really good show.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I do have my own quibbles. The change-over between Cutting Crew and Wang Chung was way too long and all of the change overs total were about an hour. I wish Wang Chung could have played more than just the six songs. A reason why it was so empty - advertising. There are so many choices of things to do, inclduing other concerts, on any given night in Chicago. There was virtually no advertising for this show - not on radio, in print, music magazines, Illinois Entertainer, Time Out, Tribune, etc. I don't know if this was a local promotor issue or Red's. I was shocked you did not come to a major market like Chicago last year and hope you are back next year. The Rosement Theater is a beautiful venue but something in Chicago proper would be even better (and the $20 they charged to parkwas an outrage).

Hi -

I took my 7 year old son to the show - we had a blast. Though, I agree with the previous posts that the change-overs were WAY too long. The show ended at 11:45 PM, and that was with only 24 songs being played the entire night!

As for the sound - I can tell you that the sound there is as good as anywhere in Chicago - BUT with a 70% empty house, it was pretty bad.

As far as the empty house - the promotion of the show really needed some help - no local radio station tie-ins? (At least on the stations that play 80's music) - The only thing they did was offer reduced price tickets, including a $10 day of show offer when you could have purchased tickets in row 6 for $10 ea. ($22 ea. including the service fees - really) I'm glad I didn't pay full price - I think I would have been PO'd.

The date of the show didn't help either - down the street at the Allstate Arena was Earth, Wind & Fire. Up the road 15 miles at Ravinia was the Indigo Girls, and the White Sox played the Cubs that day in front of 42,000 people....Perhaps a different date would have helped.
As for the $20 parking - You have 2 alternatives - Park on the other side of the highway in the train lot and pay $5, or park in the lot attached to the convention center and walk a block. ($13) Just some advice for future shows there.

Hope to have you back in '10, but I guess I'm not counting on it.

Regarding the attendance, I just think the reality is that there isn't that much interest in it. Whether it's the acts themselves or the concept I couldn't say. The new york show was supposed to have been at a larger venue and moved to a smaller one. Although well attended, it was hardly a full house. I thought the promotion was no different than any other act and i saw notices at the expected media spots. I even heard it mentioned on sirius radio.

I am glad these shows are being put together and the people who do attend do have a good time. I hope these issues don't affect future shows.