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Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire at Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio, April 5, 2016

With Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire, the sum is more powerful than the parts.

The veteran bands bracketed their co-headlining show Tuesday night with collaborative sets that were the highlights of three hours of music that unfolded before a half-house at Nationwide Arena.

With 21 musicians on stage - seven percussionists, six horn players, three keyboardists and guitarists and two bassists - there were amazingly no train wrecks. Instead, the groups formed a cohesive whole as they swapped lead vocalists and featured soloists on beloved tracks such as Chicago’s “Beginnings,” “Dialogue (Part I and II)” and “Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is?” and EWF’s “In the Stone,” “September” and “Shining Star” among others.

Between the bookends, each act performed 70-minute solo sets that featured deep tracks - disco-infused funk for EWF and pop-rock flecked with jazz and psychedelia for Chicago - and syrupy love ballads from the 1980s by both groups.

Several decades after their foundings, Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire are down to three original members each and the evening’s menu featured only songs 30 to 50 years old. While original material was the order of the night, each band offered a single cover tune that holds a prominent spot in their recorded legacy, with Chicago tackling the Spencer Davis Group’s “I’m A Man” and EWF putting their unique spin on the Beatles’ “Got to Get You Into My Life.”

EWF’s set featured a photo tribute to Maurice White, who died earlier this year, and videos of the band in its colorful, 1970s heyday. Theirs was a well-choreographed, song-and-dance routine that featured the 12 musicians firing up the crowd with powerhouse tracks such as “Africano/Power” and fanning romantic flames with dreck such as “After the Love Has Gone.”

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about EWF in 2016 is Philip Bailey’s ability to nail glass-shattering falsettos that no man his age (64) and in his condition (with balls) should be able to reach. Theirs was a good set that grew tiresome toward the end and could have been trimmed by 15 minutes.

Performing as a nine-piece, Chicago was at its best when it dug deep into its discography to play album cuts such as “Introduction” and the multi-song suite “Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon,” which composer/trombonist James Pankow mistakenly said appeared on Chicago VII (it’s on II).

Like EWF, Chicago has its share of schlock in the catalogue and this was evident in snoozers such as “Hard Habit to Break” and “You’re the Inspiration,” which appeared back-to-back and inexplicably generated Chicago’s loudest response of the evening.

Chicago performed under video screens that featured ever-changing depictions of its ubiquitous logo. The band spotlighted five lead singers, including original member Robert Lamm, who handled his parts, and four others, including original trumpeter Lee Loughnane, who combined to cover lyrics once sung by the late guitarist Terry Kath and the long-departed bassist Peter Cetera.

Always a solid live act, Chicago seemed a bit low on gas last evening - witness Pankow’s brain fart - and their set, while satisfying, didn’t reach its typical heights.

After Chicago’s solo slot, they were again joined by EWF to reprise the opening stanza with a six-song, 25-minute fireball of a mini-set that climaxed with a rip-snorting rendition of “25 or 6 to 4” that threatened to explode from sheer exuberance. As the crowd roared, the six veteran band members of Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire joined hands at the front of the stage and, flanked by 15 new kids of varying tenures, soaked in the love from an enthusiastic, presumably satisfied, audience.

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