As for the concert itself, it's everything I could have hopped for. First of all, the band has been expanded by a four piece horn section. There's now fourteen guys on stage in wonderfully elaborate and colourful costumes, moving and dancing in perfect sync with the music and each other. The show opens with an elaborate display of lights and smoke announcing the arrival of the band, who appear either out of hidden entrances or via hydraulic lifts from under the stage.

Unlike a lot of bands who have used elaborate light shows to hide any deficiencies that they might have musically, once the music starts in earnest, the lights and lasers are put on the back burner and the music takes center stage with Earth, Wind & Fire. The stage was set up as a series of ramps and risers, with the horn section having a home base stage left, drums stage right, and keyboards located just behind the drum kit. Dotted around the front of the stage, where a couple of ramps converged, was the home of the vocalists. Stationed around them were little islands of percussion instruments, where one or other of the vocalists would take a turn when not singing lead.

Meanwhile, the bass player and guitar players were in constant motion; one moment standing far down stage with the vocalist, the next scampering - in perfect time with the music - up and down the ramps on all sides. Amazing as it may sound, in spite of it seeming like all fourteen people being in constant motion, it never became chaotic on stage. The choreography was so tight that nobody was doing anything that didn't fit with what was going on with the music or what was happening around them. It was like a set of interlocking cogs that took their impetus from the central gear that was the singers.

For, in spite of all that surrounded them, the vocalists remain the center of attention, and rightly so. The amazing falsetto work of Philip Bailey, which had sent shivers up my spine thirty-five years ago when I heard him singing "Shining Star", was still as strong as ever. He and Maurice White took the lion's share of the leads, and each of them were charismatic enough to be that cog that powered the rest of the band. They were so good, that I was only mildly disappointed that "Shining Star" was reduced to just being included as part of a medley of hits at the halfway point of the concert.

Aside from that though all the hits were there and the concert ended with a rousing version of "Let's Groove". Earth, Wind & Fire were a wonderful fusion of funk, soul, and R & B, equally at ease creating hip shaking dance music as they were with soul stirring ballads. In an era when plastic dance music predominated, these guys were one of the few bands with real heart and soul. The DVD Earth, Wind & Fire In Concert captures that magic, and is an unique opportunity to experience them during the zenith of their career.