Symphony, Rock ‘n’ Roll, et. Cetera: A Dream 40 Years in the Making

We crept down the long, abandoned alley at the back of the State Theatre, bypassing smelly dumpers and mangy street cats, peering, equal parts eagerly and warily, around each twist and turn, until we came to the stage door. We took up our post and waited expectantly, album and marking pen in hand, for the star to appear. One by one, each of the musicians emerged, instruments in tow, from their mysterious back-stage dressing room, retiring for the night. We recognised individual faces of stand-out performers from the show and wanted to compliment them and chat with them, but really, we were there to see one person. Even whilst talking with the brilliant pianist and the stunning duet vocalist who had impressed us so much, we kept looking around, unintentionally rudely, like someone who is talking with you but searching the crowd for someone more interesting to talk to, for the main event, not wanting to miss the opportunity we had been waiting for.

Are we two teenage girls camping out in the street to meet Justin Bieber? Far from it! We are a 31-year-old journalist and her 58-year-old father, and the man we are waiting for is older again.

When I was asked to review a concert of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra with Peter Cetera, singer, songwriter and bass player for the legendary rock group Chicago, I immediately rang my father and invited him along as my plus-one in place of my usual partner at such events, my husband. Dad could barely contain his excitement. Ordinarily a rather reserved character, very dignified, a professional, the prospect of seeing one of his childhood heroes in the flesh revealed the little boy inside. For weeks leading up to the concert, he would send me text messages of lyrics from his favourite Chicago songs. I would go over to visit and he would have his records playing, which he brought with him when he moved here from America 35 years ago. He even got out the old piano sheet music for me to play and he sang along with me like old times when my brothers and I were all living at home.

When the night of the concert finally came, Dad packed his original 1975 double-LP vinyl – the first album he ever bought, which makes him fondly remember his last year of high school – as well as the matching piano book, with its yellowed pages, broken spine and fraying edges, showing its age and the amount of love and use it was given by both of us over the years, and a black marker and said, “it’s worth a shot.”

The show did not disappoint. Cetera sang most of the big smash-hits he had with Chicago, which he himself had written – ‘If You Leave Me Now’, ‘Baby What a Big Surprise’, ‘You’re the Inspiration’, ‘Hard Habit to Break’ and ‘Hard to Say I’m Sorry’. He also sang several number-one hits from his solo career – songs which everyone knows because they were featured in blockbuster movies, but which many, like my father and I, may not have realised were written and recorded by him. He even came back for two encores and sang my Dad’s absolute favourite, which we’d been talking ourselves into not expecting, for fear of disappointment – ’25 or 6 to 4’.

Cetera’s songs lend themselves perfectly to performance with a symphony orchestra. Chicago was a large band of many members, including a saxophonist, trumpeter and trombonist, on top of the rock-and-roll staple of guitar, bass, drums and keyboard. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arnie Roth, did a beautiful job of making these already big songs larger than life. To create a couple of necessary breaks from the pumped-up energy of the playlist, there were some lighter moments, including an exceptional jazz-blues piano solo by Thomas Cooper III, from Cetera’s Nashville band The Bad Daddy’s, a Beatles cover by Bad Daddy’s guitarist and vocalist Christopher Rodriguez, and a particularly beautiful moment in which one of SSO’s outstanding cellists played in a trio with Cooper on piano and Cetera on vocals.

Cetera’s famous tenor vocals were for the most part clear and consistent, and he did manage to hit some of those high notes almost as he used to, which given his 71 years of age, was rather impressive. For the times in which his sound kind of disappeared in a failing breath, duet vocalist Tania Hancheroff lifted him up and carried him through so that the moments passed relatively undiscerned. She did not overwhelm or out-perform him, though, and the star power-balance was maintained. Cetera stood straight, with excellent posture, walked with a confident gait, wore a sparkly black jacket and had amazing hair and shiny white teeth. The man still looks good, as affirmed by several female voices hollering from the audience.

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The delightful surprise of the night was the little chats Cetera had with his audience in-between each song. This man, who was an original member and creative mind of one of the longest-running and most successful rock groups of all time, having sold more than 100 million records, and ranking second only to the Beach Boys on the American charts, not to mention a successful, Grammy-award winning solo career as well, pleased us all with an unexpected humility and down-to-earthness. He told us stories of how he was silenced by radio announcers, snubbed by pop stars, his songs cut by movie directors and passed up for awards. Although these stories had us laughing and made us like him more, revealing a human side to him and the fact that not everything had worked out the way he had wanted, they also just impressed the pants off us, as we realised the caliber of people he had hobnobbed with and continues to hobnob with, from Cher to Kenny Rogers, and the exciting life he led and still leads, from touring Europe to the Academy Awards. This was a full-blown rock star.

To top off the whole experience, after the concert, as my father and I were contemplating abandoning our watch at the dark and dingy stage door behind the back-exit of the State Theatre, the moment we had been waiting for finally arrived. Peter Cetera himself shook our hands, let us take a photo with him and signed my Dad’s record and piano book, which are exactly twice Justin Beiber’s age.

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Peter Cetera and SSO are playing at the State Theatre for the last show tonight 13 December 2015 at 8pm.

 

 

Alicia Tripp
Alicia is the Theatre Specialist for The Plus Ones, reviewing the premiere concerts, ballets and stage shows in Sydney. She is a seasoned arts and music journalist, as a former critic for the ABC Limelight magazine and State of the Arts. She has a degree in Media & Communications, English and Music from the University of Sydney.

 

Disclaimer: The Plus Ones were invited guests of The Sydney Symphony Orchestra.