Photos: America kicks off their tour in KC at Ameristar

June 5, 2023

Chris Ortiz,

America. // photo by Chris Ortiz

The evening was hot and muggy, with more rain on the way, when the band America took the stage at Ameristar Casino in Kansas City on Friday.

Celebrating 53 years of touring, they decided to kick off their most recent tour in Kansas City with a show that started a little past 8:30. As the house lights went down, the screens displayed a quick introduction video on how many of their songs had been used in TV and film throughout the years. As the video ended, the original founding members—Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell—walked out with the rest of the group. They played an unforgettable two-hour set of their hits.

The set ran through songs ranging from “Tin Man,” “I Need You,” and “Ventura Highway,” through covers of Russ Ballard’s “You Can Do Magic,” “Nowhere Man” by The Beatles, and “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas & The Papas. They ended the show with “Sister Golden Hair” and came back for a one-song encore with “A Horse with No Name.”

During the show, the band paid tribute to their former bandmate, the late Dan Peek, and told stories about the origins of the band (the three meeting in high school in London in the late 1960s as their fathers were stationed there while in the military). They name-dropped a few of the bands they had opened for—Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones—and told stories about Jimi Hendrix, living in London during the British Invasion of the U.S., and everything musically that was going on at the time.