Photos: Kansas (the band) rock an extended set at The Midland

In which photographer Chris Ortiz bids his personal farewell to the Midwest.
Chris Ortiz,
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Kansas. // photo by Chris Ortiz

On a Thursday night, July 27, in Kansas City, Missouri, a momentous event was to unfold that, at the time, no one would have imagined.

To start with, as my time in Kansas City started to end, Thursday being my last day in the Metro and my next to last day in the State of Kansas, I had to have one last hurrah with my father, as some of you readers know is one of my go-to concert buddies. This one was special. This one, with a hint of irony, was going to be Kansas as they went on their 50th-anniversary tour.

Yes, I know, seeing Kansas on one of my last nights living in Kansas is just setting up my own poetry. And it’s a bit on the nose. I don’t care, it ruled.

My parents, both having grown up and living the vast majority if not all of their lives in the state, feel like a lot of others from the state and from that era about the band, that they are one of the biggest heroes of the state, at least musically, since they were formed in Topeka. Yes, there are some others, which some would argue that Melissa Etheridge would be more well known, but when it comes down to the end of the day, their hit songs of “Point of Know Return,” “Dust in the Wind,” and “Carry on Wayward Son” are more recognizable than any other song from anyone else who has come from the state, regardless of who they are. And this would be a night where we, everyone in attendance, would have the chance to see these three and more performed live.

Now, unlike other bands that are close to the same age as what the band Kansas still has an original member in the band. Well, actually two; Rich Williams (a Topeka native) and Phil Ehart, who was born in Coffeyville. However, this night was special, with guest appearances of Kerry Livgren and Dave Hope, two of the original band members, leaving Steve Walsh as the only living member of the band who was not in attendance.

The Midland Theater, where Kansas was playing (the show being postponed from the year before when on tour with .38 Special and one of the members of the Kansas contracted Covid), ended up being hotter inside than it was outdoors, drawing sweat from anyone who was actively singing along, clapping and cheering throughout the night, with the outdoor temps still in the lower 90s as the audience exited for the night. Yet, the warm temperatures didn’t stop anyone from having just slightly over an hour of the musical experience that the band brought with their 21-song setlist.

My father, who as stated earlier is a huge fan of his home state band, stated that it was one of the best concerts that he had been to, which says a lot since he had been with me to see other classic rock icons in the past, such as Carlos Santana, The Who, and WAR.

I didn’t go further into questioning what he had stated, but ranging from the stories that he told, from when he was a teenager, watching the band perform in the early ’70s in and around where he grew up in Chanute as a young band, to gaining national and even worldwide fame, selling out arenas and stadiums throughout North America, Europe, and Japan, with “Carry On Wayward Son” being the second most played classic rock track on the radio in 1995 and the number one classic rock track in 1997, and being able to say, after 50 years, that he “saw them when…”

As my last show in Kansas—and for The Pitch before my move to Arizona—I couldn’t have asked for better.

Kansas setlist

Belexes
Point of Know Return
Play the Game Tonight
Fight Fire With Fire
Icarus – Borne on Wings of Steel
Icarus II
A Glimpse of Home
The Pinnacle
Bells of Saint James
Throwing Mountains
People of the South Wind (Acoustic)
Dust in the Wind (Acoustic)
Reason to Be (Acoustic)
Lonely Wind (Acoustic)
Song for America
Can I Tell You
Hold On (with Kerry Livgren and Dave Hope)
Down the Road
The Wall
Miracles Out of Nowhere
—
Carry on Wayward Son (with Kerry Livgren and Dave Hope)

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