If music is the only true time machine, then it was a 1975 Friday night at Promenade Park.
KC and the Sunshine Band filled the air with the sounds of disco — which was all the rage that summer 47 years ago. Men wore silk shirts split open to the navel with gold chains, and women were adorned in low-cut dresses and platform shoes.
They went to discos for a little Thursday, Friday, and Saturday Night Fever. And the biggest songs there came from the “Bee Gees” and this Miami-bred band spirited by Harry “KC” Wayne Casey on lead vocals.
Get Down Tonight and That’s the Way (I Like It) rose to No. 1 on the charts that summer as the footloose and fancy free did the bump, the hustle, and shook everything they had.
The home page for www.heykcsb.com proclaims: “Shaking Bootys since 1973.” And now, one year shy of a half-century, the high lords of disco are still making good on that claim.
There was (Shake, Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty, I’m Your Boogie Man, Keep It Comin’ Love, Get Down Tonight, Please Don’t Go, Give It Up, and more.
KC and the Sunshine Band were enough to make your head and disco ball spin late into the night, and they did it again here on the banks of the Maumee River.
Todd Robson, 59, of Walbridge said he heard last July’s KC show here from a boat anchored in the river.
“I’ve seen him three times, and every time was great,” he said. “It’s fun, happy, feel-good music. It makes you want to get out, dance, and enjoy life.”
His friend, Scott Spencer, 64, of Walbridge, added, “KC played the music that made you want to get up and dance. It made you happy...still does. I was playing his tape in my car...But I can’t remember the name of the tape. That happens when you get old!”
He laughed along with Spencer, who was a bouncer at the Glass City Boardwalk in those days. “That was the place to be,” noted Mr. Robson. Mr. Spencer went to the Dixie Electric disco in Perrysburg.
Mr. Robson’s favorite by the band is Shake Your Booty, while Mr. Spencer’s is Celebrate.
KC, with a few more pounds than he had 50 years ago, was still nimble and shaking that booty on stage when he opened the show with Mr. Robson’s fave.
“How you doing tonight, Toledo?” shouted KC. “Let’s go back to 1978, Saturday Night Fever!”
It was time to put on those Boogie Shoes, which KC had in the soundtrack of that classic John Travolta movie about the New York City disco dance scene and lifestyle.
KC, wearing a black-sequined top with silver-sequined sleeves and collar, had some fun with the audience.
“Getting down tonight is really easy,” he said. “Getting back up, I don’t know. I have put on some weight. You know, I thought, oh, no. I might have to be KFC and the Sunshine Band.”
They had five No. 1 hits in all, won Grammys, and their music has played on more than 200 movie soundtracks.
Their four No. 1 pop hits in a 12-month stretch hadn’t been done by anybody since the Beatles in 1964. The group sold over 100 million records, and KC got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002.
He joked that Justin Timberlake, who shares the same Jan. 31 birthday exactly 30 years apart (1951 for KC, 1981 for Justin) might look like him in 30 years.
“You know, I’m 71 years old now,” said KC. “What the hell happened?”
He laughed and later joked that if you wanted to see him in his prime, “You should’ve been here in 1975.”
But on this night, the extra pounds didn’t matter. The voice, showmanship, and love of his music still came through, and we all got to travel back in that time machine.
First Published August 27, 2022, 1:54 a.m.
