Kansas Rise From The Ashes With Triumphant iHeartRadio Theater NYC Performance
By Sam Valorose
October 4, 2016
Like the phoenix emblazoned on the cover of their new album, Kansas has risen from the ashes with their first new studio album in sixteen years, The Prelude Implicit. The prog rock veterans, who have sold over 30 million records with songs ingrained our collective DNA like "Carry On Wayward Son" and "Dust In The Wind," celebrated their return with an intimate performance of new and classic material at the packed iHeartRadio Theater in New York City.
The audience was filled with diehard fans reliving the glory days of the 70's, trading concert war stories and competing who had the oldest Kansas tour t-shirt. Kansas opened with the epic "Point Of Know Return," to the crowd's delight before speaking with Q104.3's Jim Kerr about the newest addition to the band - lead singer Ronnie Platt.
During the interview portion of the performance, guitarist Rich Willaims explained how he met Platt after the departure of vocalist Steve Walsh in 2014. What ultimately made the connection with Platt a reality? Facebook. "About 7 years ago, we were playing at the Moon Dance Jam in Minnesota, it's a several day event and a band, Shooting Star, that Ronnie was with at that time was playing on the same day," Willaims explained. "I'm standing on center stage and there's this guy just singing his butt off. I'm thinking "Who is this guy? Who's the new singer for Shooting Star? He's unbelievable, good for them." Then I met Ronnie after the show and we became Facebook friends. It works. Believe me. Who knew four or five years later we were going to need a new singer."
The members of Kansas already knew Platt's work and did not require him to audition. "They just wanted me to come down and meet with them to see if I was a nice guy," Platt said. "Here I am looking at two iconic rock stars and not even 5 minutes into the conversation they had me feeling like I was sitting there was a couple of buddies just telling stories," he continued.
The group then moved into new material, performing "With This Heart," a song that can contend with any of Kansas's classic records. Platt's powerful voice and charismatic personality is a perfect match with the band. They then played the iconic "Dust In The Wind," a song was famously derived from a picking exercise that former guitarist Kerry Livgren was practicing and his wife told him to write a song around it.
Kansas just started a tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of their landmark 1976 album Leftoverture, a project that changed the band and rock music forever. "Leftoverture was the album that probably saved us," Willaims explained. Famous music producer and publisher Don Kirshner had taken a chance on the band but their time was running up. "He was putting a lot of money into us for three records and while the albums were doing well, nothing had really completely hit. We didn't know how much longer he was going to continue to support us," Williams continued. "With 'Wayward Son' being the last song written when we came in to start recording, we had a general feeling as the album was progressing that we had something that was a little different than the previous three. We didn't know that it was going to do what it did but we finally knew we had made a great Kansas record."
The band continued to blaze through prog masterpieces like "What's On My Mind," "Miracles Out Of Nowhere," "Icarus (Borne On Wings Of Steel)," and new songs "Refugee" and "Rhythm In The Spirit". Despite a sixteen year gap between albums, Kansas's fans never left. Screaming along to every lyrics, playing air guitar and air drums, the crowd was committed to follow the band in any direction they would go. When Jim Kerr asked what they owed their success to, drummer Phil Ehart hit the nail on the head. "The success? Well, easily it's the fans."
Kansas's fifteenth album The Prelude Implicit is available now.
Photo Credit: Matthew Eisman for iHeartRadio