REO Speedwagon, Three Days Grace and Collective Soul - 2015
Three Days Grace rocks Vets Park on opening day of Bay City River Roar
BAY CITY, MI -- RJ Dunn stayed up late on Friday.
But he had a good reason. Canadian rock band Three Days Grace was in town and Dunn, 7, of Waterford, wanted to see them for the third time.
It's a band he has been listening to since before he was born. In fact, he attended his first Three Days Grace concert while in the womb.
"Me and my dad always go to concerts," Dunn said as he stood near the stage with his father, Randy Dunn, behind him.
The Dunns were among upwards of 6,000 people who flooded Veterans Memorial Park in Bay City to see the band, the headliner for the opening night concert at the 28th annual Bay City River Roar.
Another set of young fans in attendance were friends Trent Okerstrom, 9, and Seth Pianga, 10, both from Livonia.
Sitting in the front row of the VIP section, the boys caught a drum stick and signed drum cover thrown into the audience by Three Days Grace drummer Neil Sanderson.
Okerstrom said he's been to more concerts than he can count, but Friday's show -- which also featured opening acts Scott Baker, Devour the Day and Young Guns -- was the first for Pianga.
This is gonna be hard to beat," he said.
Perhaps no one had more fun on Friday than Alan Hornak, a Birch Run resident who spent much of the evening jumping and running through the crowd.
"I'm having a good time," Hornak said. "I like to get people going."
Hornak's enthusiasm may have been surprising to some. He arrived at Friday's show with his right arm stitched up and in a sling, injuries he suffered in a single vehicle crash. As he moved through the crowd, other concert-goers gave him fist bumps. At one point, Hornak took a short break away from the crowd with his friends when man he didn't know pulled him back into the crowd for more.
"The music moves me" he said. "The music is my soul. I love music."
The music is set to continue Saturday, June 27, as Collective Soul comes to town. Gates open at 5 p.m. and the show kicks off at 6 p.m. with opening acts The Josh Ramses Band and American Conspiracy.
REO Speedwagon
On June 25, 1977, REO Speedwagon rocked Bay City for the first time, performing for a huge crowd at Bay City Central High School.
On July 22, 2006, they returned to rock Bay City for a second time at the Tall Ship Celebration.
The classic rockers are back to do it again as they take the stage Friday, Aug. 14, at Veterans Memorial Park on Bay City's West Side as the headliner for the 96 WHHN Summer Jam concert. Showtime is 6 p.m. with opening acts Rachelle Rae, The Banned and Brent James also scheduled to perform. Gates open at 5 p.m.
Tickets are $35 for general admission seating and $45 for VIP seats. Tickets are available at Graff Chevrolet, 3636 E. Wilder Road; Prime Bros. Furniture, 1590 S. Euclid Ave.; and Rico's Authentic Mexican Take Out, 2720 Bay Road, Saginaw.
Chad Cunningham, organizer for the concert, says there are about 100 VIP tickets and 1,500 general admission tickets left.
'We're going to give them a great show'
After all these years, bassist Bruce Hall says the band gets just as excited for a show today as it did back in the '70s.
"It's great to play Bay City again," he said. "We're coming and we're going to give them a great show. We don't have bad shows anymore. We always play really well. I love playing the old songs. We give the folks what they want to hear, the hits they grew up with."
The day REO first performed in Bay City was the same day its live album "You Get What You Play For" went platinum. Since that time, they've gone on to super-stardom with an endless stream of hits like "Time for Me to Fly," "Take it On the Run," "Keep on Loving You," "Roll With the Changes," "Don't Let Him Go," "Can't Fight This Feeling," "Ridin' the Storm Out," "In My Dreams," "That Ain't Love" and "Keep Pushin'."
While the old stuff is the priority, Hall says fans may also hear a couple newer tunes, including one called "Whipping Boy."
"We wrote it as a group on the road," said Hall. "It's a great song. Sometimes when classic rockers get ready to play a new song, fans think, 'It's my time to get up and go to the bathroom.' We're giving it to them right off the bat. Everybody has loved this song."
Although they have enough new songs to do an album, fans shouldn't look for that new album any time soon or hear those new tunes on the radio.
"We're ready to go, but no place to go with it," Hall said. "We can't release songs to the radio. They don't play them (new songs) much any more. Rock stations play the old stuff forever. They don't seem to want to play the new songs.
"Kevin (Cronin) and I went right to the radio stations with the song ("Whipping Boy") we thought was a single. We handed it to them. They played it while we were there. It's kind of hard these days. Everybody from our era is having problems getting the new songs on the radio."
One place REO has no problem finding eager listeners is at concerts. The group can still pack a venue, inside or outside. And that, says Hall, is something they plan to do until they physically can't do it any more.
The current band lineup also includes Neal Doughty on keyboards, Dave Amato on lead guitar and Bryan Hitt on drums. Hall says they still love touring and performing, even though the band members are now in their 60s and 70s.
"Touring is what we love to do," he said. "We've been doing it ever since I can remember. I've been in the band almost 40 years. Touring is what we do best. We used to make records, we still can, but touring is one thing, getting out playing for the folks and the kids. REO does it better than anything and we love to do it."
Hall says although the band doesn't play as many shows as it did in the past, there are no plans to slow down.
"Everyone is in good health and we are playing better than ever. As long as people keep showing up, I don't think we will stop playing for many years."
Hall said the fact that he sees fans both old and young in the crowds is satisfying because he knows REO's songs are being passed on to a new generation.
"There is a mini resurgence of young people getting into bands again," he said. "For a while, I started to worry about the future for groups. Kids are learning to play the guitar, they get friends, put bands together. That wasn't happening for a while, but it's starting up again. Music always finds a way. It's been around as long as people have been around and it always finds a way to resurface. It's a force of nature."