I saw Loggins and Messina and Jim Croce on March 13, 1973 at the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh. The Mosque was a great concert hall and I have posted about it.
Jim Croce was the opening act. He was much more of a folk musician than you would know from his hit records. I assume all of the rock background was added on the record to make them more popular with a wider audience. On stage, it was just him and Maury Muehleisen who accompanied him. They both died in a plane crash on September 20, 1973 They both played acoustic guitars. Croce told a lot of stories and was very amusing as I recall.
Loggins and Messina had released two albums by that point. They toured with a full band. I don’t recall much except that Jim Messina stood off to the side when he did guitar solos.
Here are videos of them from 1973.
Sad! 