Photos by Chris Br

                                                               Kansas, Leftoverture 40 anniversary October 15th, Majestic Theater, Dallas Texas

    This was my first time seeing Kansas. They have a new lineup, their staple writers Kerry Livgrin and Steve Walsh being retired these days. Like a lot of bands, Kansas has seen their share of success, downsides and now on the comeback trail. They are promoting their new album 'The Prelude Implicit" their first album since 2000. The treat is the fact that their smash album, Leftoverture, was being performed in its entirety for this tour.

The show was at the Majestic, downtown Dallas, an intimate venue originally meant for plays, but has been adapted to plat concerts as well. It is one of a few remaining venues of its type (there is a larger version in San Antonio) and is a historic landmark.

 The show started out with the band seated on stools,  for an acoustical set and opened with The Coming Dawn (Thanatopsis), from 2000's "Somewhere to Elsewhere". I was impressed by the fact so many in Kansas are versed on different instruments, it was impressive to see many members change instruments between songs (and the occasional guitar tech running behind the back drop) The acoustic set went into "Hold On" - I've always like this one, like many of Kansas 's songs it has a great message. "Chasing Shadows" from Vinyl Confessions was the next track, then "Reason to Be" from Monolith. The set concluded with a new track which had already caught my attention as I'd been listening to 2016's Prelude Implicit that weekend. Its title is "Refugee" and it's one of the strongest track on the new album. Its lyrics are about human sex trafficking. Prelude had two other  tracks in the set, Voyage eight eighteen and Section 60. Section 60 is a place in the Arlington Memorial Cemetery where the veterans are interred, this is an instrumental dedicated to them, and concluding solemnly with a Naval Officer presenting the flag at the conclusion, (see picture second from left)

As Section 60 fades out, the lights onstage came up and you could hear an old analog radio tuner...searching, snippets of BOC's "reaper", new about Jimmy Carter, pieces of the late 70's and then and then hits- "Carry on my Wayward son" - The rest of the evening is, as it was then- Leftoverture in its entirety. Great musicianship a good bond with the audience, I'd say if you get a chance to see them...Do it.

- Chris Br