Chicago’s 1970 Tanglewood Performance Shows Peter Cetera at Full Power
This newly surfaced clip of Chicago drops us into July 21, 1970 at Tanglewood, and it is a blast right out of the gate. This is early Chicago in full flight. Loud, loose, and burning down the house.
On bass, Peter Cetera is in a very different era than most people remember. Fender Precision in hand, gritty tone dialed up, and way up in the mix, likely pushing an Acoustic stack, which helps explain that punchy, slightly overdriven edge. He sounds massive! His lines are busy in the best way. Constant motion, strong melodic sense, and tight. It is a huge part of why this performance feels so alive.
This came right as Chicago II was breaking the band wide open. Back then, they were still a horn driven rock group with a serious jazz edge, and their live shows stretched way beyond the studio cuts. Sure, Terry Kath is on fire here, but listen to how much of the energy comes from the bass. Cetera is right in the middle of it all.
Old footage, new to a lot of us, and absolutely worth the watch
No Treble CEO Jody Miller is a Chicago-based bassist, guitarist, engineer, and producer best known for his bass gear demo videos and as the co-host of The Bass Nerds podcast.
1970.
It was the ending of the ’60’s with the war still raging, and our college band (One Nite Stand) played Chicago and BST songs since we had the horns and our bass player also played clarinet and flute, so we had it covered.
So much fun seeing them perform.
Good story: Went to see Hendrix in Charlotte (May 9, 1969) and he came out on the stage to announced that he wanted us to hear a new band he had found and that they were going to be very popular. Introduced “Chicago Transit Authority,” which was their original name. Blew us away as did Jimmy during his set.
Great days, friends, great days and amazing music…
Terry Kath criminally unknown and underrated
Peter is a beast both vocally and especially on bass.. as a young man,
teenager actually, just beginning to learn bass, listening to CTA in my buddy’s basement at full volume,
the bass coming from the speakers was vibrating the rafters and you could feel the hair standing up all over your body, pant legs shaking to the music. One of the absolute coolest recordings we had at the time, on par with Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, or Cream. Peter’s aggressive playing reminded me of Jack Bruce,
or anyone else in that era you could name. Thanks for the flashback.
notreble is the best.
Thanks, Jody