Some 30 years ago my older brother got me hooked up playing softball with one of his “friends.” I don’t recall as to how my brother knew him. “Mike” was a horrible ball player and that is why he just managed the team. I learned things about Mike slowly. I knew that he had lost is drivers license due to a DUI. It was later on that I also learned that he was also busted for cocaine possession on that same traffic stop.
His wife was a user before they got married and she introduced him to the cocaine. After about two years of coking and boozing, the wife said “we need to stop this.” To which Mike said “HELL NO !!!!” Yep they got divorced. Mike suspected that it was his wife’s boyfriend that dropped the dime on Mike and got him busted for the drugs and DUI.
Not having a DL did not stop Mike from doing the things that he wanted to do. If he wanted to go out for dinner, he’d call someone and tell them he’d buy dinner if they drove. Same with going to the movies or even going to concerts. Mike wanted to see REO Speedwagon and he bought tickets for me and my girlfriend. More on the concert in a bit. I ended up being a driver for Mike a number of times. One night he wanted to go to the bar, so we went. We had a drink and were there for 30 minutes before he suggested a different bar. We went to about six bars that night. Finally, he asked if I knew where a certain apartment complex was and I did and he said he wanted to go there. We went and he had me drive through the parking lot 4-5 times and he appeared to be looking for something.
Figure it out yet????
Yep, I guessed that I was assisting Mike in stalking his ex wife. I made an excuse to have to go home, stopped returning his calls and never saw him again.
Back to the REO concert.
REO was about at their peak when I was in high school but I didn’t listen to them. I mostly listened to 60’s British invasion rock and oldies along that line. But they were played nonstop on the local top 40 radio station, WLS 890 AM Chicago so I heard the music quite a bit and have some good memories of hearing that music in the background while making out with my girlfriend in her parents basement !!!
Mike bought us all tickets to the concert and it was really enjoyable and I came to really like their music.
I have four versions of “Ride’n The Storm Out” on my playlist and I am 1 of about 15 people that actually like the studio version of that song.
Below is “Roll With The Changes”. (It’s the fake live video but at least you can watch something other than the album cover)
What hooks me with this song is (surprisingly) the drumming rhythm.
The guitar solo after the organ solo is why God made Les Paul (to make Les Paul guitars of course)
Bacon Time !!!!!! 
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Grew up in Rochester NY in the ’70’s where REO was on All The Time!
They came to play at the War Memorial Auditorium, sold out in hours and so opened up another show the next night. My friends thought it was so cool, they loved Rochester!
Told them they saw easy pickings, selling out another show without having to go somewhere else.
Hated there repetitive music, then and now.
I would have dumped him when he told me he liked REO. But I am sure they put on a good show, had to have something going for them.
It was a decent show. I haven’t gone to many concerts in my life and this is the only one that I can’t remember the opening band !! One of the biggest criticisms (by critics) is that they played and recorded the same style of music for decades.