It’s 37 years later, and they just wanna keep on loving you.
The vehicle called REO Speedwagon is headed for the Cowlitz Ballroom at ilani on Jan. 20. Tickets start at $39, and go on sale today at ilaniresort.com.
REO Speedwagon was the leader of a pack of hard-rocking bands that struggled through the 1970s before finding top-40 success in the 1980s by taming and sweetening garage noise into a glorious, anthemic pop sound that was about as huge as their hair.
“Keep on Loving You,” “Take It on the Run” and more monster hits came from the 1980 album “Hi Infidelity,” which became one of the decade’s biggest sellers and made REO Speedwagon the earliest kings of a pop genre that arguably launched in the 1980s and still with us today: the power ballad.
The band’s popularity waned a bit by the end of that decade, but frequent touring (with such bands as Styx, Journey and Chicago) and reissues of greatest hits have kept them in the limelight. Personnel have changed somewhat, but REO Speedwagon’s distinctively high-altitude tenor voice is still that of Kevin Cronin, their front man since the 1970s.
