Iconic rock band in Lynn Saturday

LYNN – Kansas, the band behind two of among the most recognizable songs in rock history and a compilation of music that remains the staple of generations that came of age in the 1970s and ’80s, takes the stage at Lynn Memorial Auditorium Saturday night.Kansas, which has seen some of the same players come and go over the years, today includes three original members, including Steve Walsh on vocals and keyboards, Rich Williams on guitar and band leader Phil Ehart on drums, and is rounded out by Billy Greer on bass guitar and David Ragsdale on violin.Williams, the guitarist who hasn’t missed an album or tour with the band since its inception, told the Item the Lynn audience will hear selections from many of its 14 studio releases and include those that catapulted Kansas to fame: Leftoverture, released in 1976 that featured the gold hit single Carry On My Wayward Son, and Point of No Return, released the following year, with the hit title track along with gold hit single Dust In The Wind.Having played more than 2,700 live shows – most sellouts in major arenas around the country, including Boston and New York, in its heyday – Williams said, “by now we have touring down to a science.”We’d love to still be selling out Madison Square Garden, but the small venues are a lot more intimate. We’re still touring because we’re musicians and this is what we love to do,” Williams said, noting the band toured last summer with Styx and Foreigner that included some benefit shows at college campuses. “The set varies depending on where we’re playing; if it’s with a symphony orchestra it’s different than a state fair.” In Lynn, he said, “we’ll do some stuff from about every album.”Williams said the band has great memories playing Boston Garden over the years, including a show not long before the Garden was torn down. “We stayed at a beautiful hotel right off the Common and I remember spending some time at The Rack,” referring to the popular former nightclub at Faneuil Hall.In the band’s early days, Williams shared guitar duties with Kerry Livgren, also Kansas’ chief songwriter, who left the band in the early ’80s, leaving Williams as its only guitar player. The two remain great friends and are in contact, he said.Some may find it amazing Williams, who along with Ehart are the only two to have played on every studio and live album release, did all of this with only one eye. He lost his right eye in a childhood fireworks accident. He wore a prosthetic eye for years, but today wears a patch.”It doesn’t bother me,” Williams said of his limited sight. ‘The only thing I can’t do is the finger tapping thing (a form of guitar picking), because I’ll be off by a half-inch or more. I just can’t see it. Other than that, it’s never bothered me.”Asked about the state of the industry today, Williams said he has mixed feelings.”Artists don’t develop anymore,” he said, noting the Internet today can create overnight sensations whereas successful bands from the ’70s and ’80s and earlier generations had to build their success slowly over months and years by recording and touring. “That just doesn’t happen anymore.”So much of the popular music today has nothing to do with melody,” Williams said, adding, “I’m not a rap fan, I’ll tell you that.”He is, however, pleased with television shows like American Idol and Glee, “which are bringing talent back to the forefront, with melody and singing.”Williams said he’s especially enjoyed playing with symphony orchestras. In 2009 Kansas recorded a concert in Topeka with a full symphony, released on CD, Blue Ray, and DVD which hit #5 on Billboard’s Music Video chart.Williams said Kansas has held a steady fan base over the years and still attracts new fans. Parents bring children to shows, he said, and video games including Guitar Hero, he said, on which the band is featured, have helped bring younger fans into the fold.Later this year Kansas will go on an international tour, with shows in Germany, Switzerland and Sweden.”Last night