REO Speedwagon have rolled through more than a year of changes, weathering the lengthy pandemic and finally making their way back to the stage. Being able to get back out there and “just kick some ass” again was a really good feeling, says REO singer-songwriter Kevin Cronin.
But they also moved through a number of emotional moments. Among them, a celebratory feeling hung in the air as they played through some of Cronin’s earliest collaborations from the early ‘70s with late REO guitarist Gary Richrath, who passed away in 2015.
It had been nearly 16 months since the band’s last performance in Effingham, Ill. on March 13, 2020 — and one might say, that’s too “effing” long. For their return to action, the band, themselves born on Illinois soil in Champaign, came back to the state for a show (on July 1) in Aurora at RiverEdge Park.