Old school rock and roll compliments of the Illinois Lottery

The Illinois Lottery is bringing audiences a great line-up of concerts this summer in the Anything's Possible Music Series - everyone from Jack Johnson to Rascal Flats to Bruno Mars to Jimmy Buffett to Aerosmith and many, many more. This past week I attended my third concert this season at First Midwest Bank Theatre this year. The first two were country shows - Brad Paisley and Toby Keith. This most recent concert was a big dose of old school rock and roll with Lynyrd Skynrd and Bad Company.

I attended with my sister-in-law and we stopped for a pre-show dinner at Hamada of Japan, which is just a couple minutes down the road where we stuffed ourselves on noodles and rice and veggies, meat and seafood cooked right in front of us. I totally recommend it for a concert night dinner.

We watched the show from the Illinois Lottery VIP deck - a nice vantage point. First up was Lynyrd Skynyrd, followed by Bad Company.

A lot of the music from both bands was released when I was a toddler, but I'm a sucker for classics and oldies. I didn't realize until I looked up some song lists for each band how many of their songs I knew. There were some great old school classic rock songs on the list that I knew and loved, but didn't realize who the artists were.

I was very excited to see Lynyrd Skynyrd. As far as I'm concerned Sweet Home Alabama is at the top of the list of all time best rock anthems. I've always loved the song and then when Kid Rock added it in to a mash up with his hit All Summer Long, I loved it even more. I saw Kid Rock at Soldier Field a few years ago when he opened for Bon Jovi. I went there not really into him, but he totally won me over with his performance, especially when he sang All Summer Long. Anyway, it was a blast being there to see Lynyrd Skynyrd sing one of the best ever rock anthems live.

It wasn't until I saw the movie Con Air (remember that scene where the song Sweet Home Alabama plays as John Buschemi explains the definition of irony?) that I learned that three members of the group died in a plane crash in the late 1970's. The group now tours with a re-formed band that includes  couple of original members and the younger brother of the original lead vocalist filling his brother's shoes.

So, the show then went from the deep south to the English band Bad Company (I adore British musicians and singers), which had a big string of hits in the 70's that produced some disco-era baby making ballads, like Feel Like Makin' Love and Ready For Love and some good nitty gritty rock tunes like Can't Get Enough, Bad Company and Good Lovin Gone Bad. 

It was a fun night. Thanks to the Illinois Lottery for providing tickets as part of the Anything's Possible Music Series (a cool slogan to remind you that the sky is the limit if you are a winner.) You can pick up Anything's Possible scratch off tickets where Illinois lottery tickets are sold and you can win up to $1,000. Tickets are also available at some of the upcoming concerts. More on the #apmusicseries here where you can also enter the Anything's Possible Music Series sweepstakes to win concert tickets and meet and greet passes!

***Tickets to the concert were provided by the Illinois Lottery. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.