Took me over 20 years, but I finally saw Huey Lewis.....Llive in concert!

An evening at Star Lake

Published on July 22, 2006 By Rightwinger In Entertainment

A month or so ago, The Wife and I stopped for ice cream at Stars and Stripes, a local walk-up ice cream joint just out the road.
While there, I ran into Cody, a girl I used to work with, and spent a couple minutes catching up with her. She was with her fiance and his father, and they sat quietly as we chatted about work and such.
At length, the older man asked where we lived, if we were residents of Hanover Township. We replied that yes, we were. We live in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania.
He asked us if we liked Chicago; I asked if he meant the Bears (as some of you may know, I'm a rabid fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and found it unfathomable that this guy, obviously a local himself, would bother to ask me if I liked the Bears) or the city.
He laughed and said no, the band Chicago. We both replied that yes, we did.
Turns out he's someone high up in the Township "government". The Star Lake Amphitheater (most recently purchased and renamed the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Pavillion", but it'll always be "Star Lake" to most everyone), with its loud, raucous and often disruptive concerts, is in Hanover. The Township receives hundreds of free passes to pass out to residents, general admission lawn seats, of course, six of which he offered to us. It was when he told us who was opening for them, however, that it was clinched for me (besides the fact that the tickets were free...we took several friends with us, and made a night of it).

Huey Lewis and the News.

Chicago is cool, sure, but I've been a fan of Huey Lewis and the News since the album "Sports" came out in, what, 1983 or '84?
"Sports" and its follow-up, "Fore" were seminal albums of the early and mid-80s. All through High School, I sported a "Huey Lewis and the News" button pin on the left pocket flap of my stylishly ripped Levis jean jacket, beside one that bore the logo of my school.
The only thing that changed the order was the addition of a "Reagan-Bush '84" pin I wore during the election campaign.

I love the smooth R&B/Rock stylings of the group, and have always found Huey, with his mildly rough, throaty voice, to be a likeable, moderately charismatic front man.
He seems "normal" somehow, you know? Approachable. Relatively famous and good at what he does, but not so much that it goes to his head; he genuinely seems to enjoy what he does, and does it for that reason. The kind of guy you'd be able to sit down and have a beer and cheeseburger with.
Several guys in the group, Huey included, have been associated, musically and personally, for three and four decades, even before the founding "News", which I think is cool. Also, there's never been any scandal within or about the group, either, that I'm aware of. I admire all that.

The show started at 7:40, with Huey and the News working the crowd very well. Their first set contained a few songs from later releases, with some oldies from my day tossed in here and there. The second set consisted mainly of the oldies.

Chicago came out at 9:20 and put on a really good show, too, with Huey coming out and doing one or two songs with them, as the opening News did with a couple members of Chicago.
They did many of their old standards, of course (the guy who sang "Hard to say I'm Sorry" sounded a lot like Peter Cetera----I guess they're related, somehow---and did it very well), and some from their new release.
I can't remember right offhand what song Huey soloed on, but I agreed with The Wife and my friend Bill that it wasn't really his type of song. He sounded kind of odd, but carried it well, regardless.

Thunderstorms threatened all evening long, but thankfully stayed away until well after the concert was over. All in all, it was a nice evening, and I enjoyed finally getting to see Huey and the News after all these years. Maybe I'll see about more tickets for future conerts....Def Lepard is coming with Journey......

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