Chicago’s No Stranger To Robby Krieger As He’s Been Playing Here For Decades With And Without The Doors And Still Selling Out Clubs Today

Jun 26, 2024 admin_bitlc Features, Music News, Reviews Comments Off on Chicago’s No Stranger To Robby Krieger As He’s Been Playing Here For Decades With And Without The Doors And Still Selling Out Clubs Today

By James Currie

His name will always be synonymous with the bluesy-jazz quartette, The Doors, but guitarist Robby Krieger has made a name for himself as a solo artists as well and still creating new sounds today. He’s also released a book about his time with The Doors. This tour a Doors tribute as it marks the bands 4th album release, “The Soft Parade” on its 54th anniversary.

Krieger returns to Chicago for another sold out gig. This time for another go at the laidback hip, City Winery. A place he’s played before with his solo band last time fronted by his son, Waylon this time sans Waylon as he apparently is home mending a broken arm from a bicycle accident.

Filling in for Waylon is the son of producer Paul Rothchild, Dan Rothchild. Dan is the former original bassist of the 90’s alternative rock band, Tonic. Tonight, he’s taking on the roll of Jim Morrison AND the rolling bass lines of Ray Manzarek. He was amazing. Played those iconic bass riffs normally played on a Leslie and sang Morrisons parts flawlessly. And as any Doors fan can tell you, those are not easy to play, let alone together.

This is part of a micro tour that will only include 5 cities. Luckily, Chicago is one of those as this was a standing room only sold out show for the lucky ones who got in.

Also joining Krieger on this tour is his backing bandmates for his latest project, Robbie Krieger and the Soul Savages which tonight, is comprised of Ed Roth on Keyboards and Ty Dennis behind the drums along with Rothchild.

This nights show started out with some classic Doors first with a rousing blast of “Break on Through (to the otherside)” the one that Krieger said is, “A song we’d played many times in the clubs. So it felt rehearsed. All we did was set the mics up and go.” and “Love Her Madly” one of The Doors final songs that Krieger wrote with a brand new guitar he bought looking for a new sound saying, “One day I was strumming the new purchase and I stumbled over a nice riff and some shuffle chords, and Love Her Madly started to take shape.” It was that one two punch that got the house fired up.

The band played on through the night with hits and deep cuts along the way. He told stories about the infamous Miami incident, songwriting, Ray Manzarek and history snippets of the band. One song that was only played one other time, “Your Lost Little Girl” was presented to us for the second time live ever.

Before the night ended, nearly twenty songs were played. And with some of them being almost 10 minutes, it was a well earned ticket price as they played for over 2 hours.

After a short break, the band returns for two more songs, “Riders on the Storm” and “Light My Fire” with insert snippets from the Beatles “Eleanor Rigby” and “My Favorite Things” by Hammerstein and Rodgers “Sound of Music”.

The end was met with a round of applause and standing ovation as the fans went nuts. There was such a fanfare for the man that he didn’t even get to leave the stage as many rushed to the front to meet the legend and get an autograph before heading home, something Krieger graciously obliged to.

During this performance, you could see Krieger truly enjoying the night. He was full of stories. Riffing off his bandmates and toyed with the audience with tongue waggles during riffs and answering call outs from the crowd. He played off his keyboardist trading call and response notes for notes. Krieger even co-sang with Rothchild on songs and let him take the lead for most. This was his finest performance I’ve seen in the last decade. If you are luck enough to be in a town he’s playing at, or even close enough to drive to, I’d highly recommend it.