Cronin and Speedwagon, as Driven as Ever

Hey, the late-'70s just phoned! They still want somebody to show some respect for their rock-and-roll!

The folks who packed Merriweather Post Pavilion on Tuesday night to see REO Speedwagon and Styx would take that call. Proving yet again that nostalgia is an all-powerful force in the rock realm, both Illinois-spawned arena bands from back in the day did their moment in the sun proud.

REO has for years been basically just frontman and lead singer Kevin Cronin and whomever he can get to hit the road with him. REO showed some evidence of its roots as a guitar-based bar band (highlighted by 1973's "Ridin' the Storm Out"), but the later power ballads carried the Champaign-based combo's closing set. A screen above the stage showed footage from its appearance at Live Aid, and Cronin made occasional references to the group having been a force for social consciousness. But the song REO featured at history's biggest concert back in 1984 was "Can't Fight This Feeling," a tune with a chorus just as dumb as dirt: "And I can't fight this feeling anymore/I've forgotten what I started fighting for/It's time to bring this ship into the shore/And throw away the oars forever."

Then again, as Cronin's warbling reminded everyone, picking out the most mindless words from REO's songbook is like naming your favorite Dylan couplet: There's just so much to choose from! Like this from "Time for Me to Fly": "I've had enough of the falseness of a worn-out relation/Enough of the jealousy and the intoleration." And "Keep On Loving You," where Cronin crooned about a lover who "played dead . . . all coiled up and hissin'." Sure, "intoleration" ain't really a word, and dead things don't really hiss. But the guy needed rhymes!

Truth be told, "Can't Fight This Feeling," "Time for Me to Fly" and "Keep On Loving You" share something beyond mere dumbness. All these tunes have fabulous melodies, so despite the sorry words, they owned the pop airwaves for a time. And they all still mean something to folks who came of age at that time. So REO's soft stuff filled Merriweather with joy. During "Can't Fight This Feeling," one middle-ager up front stood amid a sea of waving cellphones and paid an analog tribute to the good ol' days with a raised lighter. As some smart dude once said, ignorance can be bliss.

Styx, which still tours with its heyday guitarists-vocalists Tommy Shaw and James Young and bassist Chuck Panozzo, was among the more ambitious pop bands of its era. The Chicago-based combo's output borrowed from domestic soft-rock bands and English art rockers. Shaw's "Crystal Ball" had America's harmonies and Emerson, Lake and Palmer's spacey synths, over good ol' American power chords. "Fooling Yourself (the Angry Young Man)" from 1977 and "Renegade" (1978) were a poor man's Queen, the latter's theme and arrangement a straight filch from "Bohemian Rhapsody." But, stolen or not, the kids who memorized every Styx time change and chorus in their bedrooms three decades ago have grown into folks who'll regurgitate it all in amphitheaters, smiling like life's been good.

At night's end, members of Styx joined REO Speedwagon to send everybody home with a new song that Cronin and Shaw wrote called "Can't Stop Rockin'." We know, guys. We know!