The crowd was packed shoulder-to-shoulder in the sun-warmed seating at the Stanislaus County Fairgrounds this Saturday. Fair-goers from all around eagerly awaited the start of the evening’s progressive rock act, Kansas — and by no means were they disappointed.
David Ragsdale, the violinist, was contagiously energetic and charismatic during their onstage performance, and the band played as well as ever to a massive crowd of Turlocker fans.
This performance was especially important to long-time fans seeing as Steve Walsh — the keyboard player and vocalist — announced his resignation on June 30, according to the group’s Facebook page. His final performance with the band will be at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Sioux City Iowa this Aug. 16.
The show started promptly at 8:30 p.m., and promptly made sure to play the big crowd pleasers. In fact, “Dust in the Wind” played not long after 9 p.m. The crowd’s favorite by far was the second song in the encore. Just after finishing “Fight Fire with Fire,” the opening of “Carry On Wayward Son” began to play and the crowd went wild.
At the end of the show, spare drumsticks were thrown out into the remaining members of the audience. Some fans were still dancing and singing after the act had finished, and the sheer multitude of audience members was enough to completely choke traffic on the midway.
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