Earth, Wind & Fire at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium — November 5, 1976

On November 5, 1976, Earth, Wind & Fire brought the Spirit tour to the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, five weeks after the album of the same name came out on Columbia. Spirit was dedicated to arranger and co-producer Charles Stepney, who had died during the sessions, and it would climb to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 behind the No. 1 soul single “Getaway.” Maurice White later called the eighty-city run the band’s most successful tour to that point, a theatrical production built around pyramids, fog and robes. Fifty years later, the Friday-night show stands as Earth, Wind & Fire at the height of its powers, playing to Buffalo in the Aud.