REO Speedwagon — Ridin' the Storm Out (1981)

JUL 01 1981 · 12:00

REO Speedwagon — Ridin' the Storm Out (1981) (1981) Director: Richard Namm Era: MTV Launch Era (1981) - Coinciding with MTV's August 1981 debut; REO Speedwagon's live concert performance aired as the first-ever MTV Saturday Night Concert, representing arena rock at its commercial apex during Hi Infidelity's chart dominance. Exceptionally high. This video is a primary document of MTV's first week of programming, the first live stereo concert ever broadcast on the network, and a rare performance capture of the Hi Infidelity-era REO Speedwagon lineup at the peak of their commercial power. The low-brightness, sepia-toned, slow-paced aesthetic is a faithful technical record of early 1980s multi-camera analog concert filmmaking, making it valuable for both music television historiography and arena rock visual culture studies. Context: This performance video occupies a singular position in MTV history: it was broadcast on August 8, 1981 — just one week after MTV's launch on August 1 — as the network's first-ever Saturday Night Concert and first live stereo concert broadcast. REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity was simultaneously the best-selling album in America, spending 15 non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200, making the band the ideal anchor act for the fledgling cable channel. The song 'Ridin' the Storm Out' had itself become a live anthem after a career-defining reinvention: originally recorded in 1973 with vocalist Mike Murphy, it became an AOR staple through Kevin Cronin's live vocal version on Live: You Get What You Play For (1977), charting at #94 and cementing REO's Midwest touring identity. The dark, sepia-toned visual character of this video reflects the practical limits of early arena concert filming — tungsten stage rigs, analog broadcast cameras, and no post-production augmentation — yet these constraints inadvertently produced an aesthetic document of pre-digital rock spectacle at its peak. Director notes: The performance captured in this video is drawn from REO Speedwagon's concert at McNichols Sports Arena (also cited as McNichols Arena) in Denver, CO, recorded July 1981 during the Hi Infidelity tour. The resulting broadcast — REO Speedwagon: Live Infidelity — aired on MTV on August 8, 1981, and is documented as the first-ever MTV Saturday Night Concert and the first live stereo concert broadcast on the network. The setlist includes 'Ridin' the Storm Out' as a featured performance. The production was distributed on multiple home video formats including VHS (PAL), Betamax (PAL), and SelectaVision CED, with a LaserDisc source also documented. The concert features the classic Hi Infidelity lineup: Kevin Cronin (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, acoustic guitar), Gary Richrath (lead guitar, backing vocals), Neal Doughty (keyboards, organ, piano), Alan Gratzer (drums, vocals), and Bruce Hall (bass, vocals).