SPRINGFIELD – Styx and Stones … well, maybe not a lot of Stones, but The KOZ! brought their hard-rocking A-game Wednesday in front of a large Island Park crowd as part of the 2025 Willamette Park and Recreation Summer Concert Series.
Regardless of whether they’re covering Journey, Kansas, or Led Zeppelin, The KOZ! has an uncanny ability to mimic virtually every classic rock band right on the button.
“We try to cover the songs just like you hear them on the radio,” said band leader Mike Harrison, the lead singer and rhythm guitar player.
They played a lot of the big hits by Journey (Don’t Stop Believin’, Separate Ways, Who’s Crying Now) and Styx (Blue Collar Man, Too Much Time On My Hands, Sail Away, Renegade), and the crowd danced up a storm to one-hit wonder songs “Never Been Any Reason” by Head East and “Final Countdown” by Europe.
Seeing the younger generation dance makes it all worthwhile, Harrison says.
“I like playing for kids,” Harrison said. “Getting the young people excited about the music. There’s no inhibitions, seeing the kids out moving around, because the music makes them move around, just like it does to all of us. It’s not about drinking or the bar, it’s just music.
“I like driving that, because that’s the next generation of musicians that’s coming up, and hopefully they do something good with the music.”
Having formed a band in 2012, The KOZ! has developed a loyal local following.
“We had the record here (for the largest Island Park crowd),” Harrison said. “They counted over 800 people here – it was right before Covid, either 2018 or 2019. (Keyboard player) Jim and I have played together in different bands for over 30 years. … It’s good that we have the following that we do and people appreciate the hard work. Most bands will play 40 minutes and take a break, but we’re here to play music, we’re not here to take a break. We play the entire time that we can.”
The second set went out with a bang.
It started with a “Bark at the Moon.”
“This is a salute to Ozzy Osbourne,” Harrison said, while introducing the title track from Osbourne’s third studio album. Osbourne, 76, died last week. “He wrote a great number of tunes, with Black Sabbath, and on his own. This is for you, Ozzy!”
Harrison said the band spent a year trying to get “Bark at the Moon” perfected.
“We never give up. If we have a tough song, we just keep playing it and playing it until we get it right,” Harrison said. “We play all the songs by Kansas and Boston that most other bands don’t want to touch.”
The evening ended with a stirring 1-2 punch that’s difficult to beat – “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin and “Sweet Child Of Mine” by Guns N’ Roses.
“Those two songs are iconic songs,” Harrison said. “‘Kashmir’ is typically our first-set closer, and ‘Sweet Child’ usually closes our second set. I pride myself in picking the right songs.”
He should. Those songs have stood the test of time.
