It was a night Cedar Rapids had been looking forward to for a long time. The band Chicago played the McGrath Amphitheater last night to a crowd of near 3000, kicking off an amazing upcoming concert season.

We arrived around 4pm to begin our live broadcast, and the venue looked amazing.  This year, they've changed things up for concerts as we've been telling you.  Instead of it being all blankets and personal folding chairs, they've gone and created complete reserved seating.  We were looking forward to seeing how this would all work out, and were blown away and how well it did.  We did hear from some staff it took quite a bit of trail and error to get it all set-up properly, and we applaud the staff for their hard work.

The crowd started pouring in as the gates opened at 6p. We had the fantastic opportunity to take a few listeners back to meet the band, and both parties were very excited.  It's rare that you get the chance to chit chat with the band a bit, but they were very cool about it.  A couple listeners were able to show off their memorabilia they brought along, and reminisce with the guys a bit.  It was a tremendous experience.

The opener, Tim Stop, did a great job warming the crowd up and sounded fantastic.  But there was nothing quite like the sound of Chicago, who took the stage with horns, keyboards, and guitars ablaze.  These guys are no spring chickens, but sounded just as good as they have all these years.  The crowd loved it, we loved it, and with a perfect backdrop to boot.  It was an incredible night.

So now we have plenty more amphitheatre concerts to look forward to, including the Thomas Dostal Developers Freedom Festival Concert with a similar venue set-up.  When we say you have a reserved seat for the best fireworks in Iowa and a great concert, we're not kidding.  No worries about sitting in the lawn, or staking out a claim.  It's a physical, reserved seat.  Reserve yours today!

 

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