After a pretty solid set by Whitesnake and a 20 minute break to change the stage, Foreigner started rocking the USANA. This is the second time I've seen Foreigner in concert. The first time was back in the mid-80s when I saw them in Idaho Falls, Idaho. That was still when Lou Gramm was the singer. They were still pretty popular back then but their star was on a downward track. That night there was something missing about their performance. The opening act that night was John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. Honestly on that night Cafferty and his band were better.
I probably wouldn't have even went and seen this concert if they didn't have Whitesnake touring with them. And then when I found The Jason Bonham Led Zeppelin Experience was the opening act I was even more excited. I'm still irritated that I missed most of their act.
Foreigner was good on this night, but not great. Again they were missing something that would have launched them into the concert pantheon. I can't quite put my finger on it. Their light show was meh and the band had way too much filler in the show. Too long extended versions of "Juke Box Hero", "Urgent" and Hansen's rambling speeches added a lot of unneeded filler to the show. No I didn't want the show to be any shorter, ninety minutes isn't very long for a headliner set.
Other songs Foreigner could have played:
"Say You Will":
"Heart Turns To Stone":
"Heart Turns To Stone":
"That Was Yesterday":
"I Don't Want To Live Without You":
"Break It Up":
"Love On The Telephone":
They didn't play "Starrider" on this night, but they've played it at other shows on this tour:
Would I recommend to go see them, I'm not sure. I mean they're still musically a great band and Hansen is a great singer. Although he's funny and engaging, he's also goofy as hell. As my friend said "what do you expect, he's a hippy". So again I would say they're good, but not great. He did say a few things I really liked, but not so much the jokes about being over 40. Especially because most of those jokes were true. He asked if back in the day did we turn the radio on first thing in the morning? Maybe not the radio, but I always had music playing. He also noted that music was probably still special to us now. Again, why yes it is. Music is my means to sanity in an increasingly insane world. It's the cheapest therapy there is and there's so many ways that music can be accessed now.Foreigner was loud, but the music wasn't as pummeling as Whitesnake's set. You can see the setlist below, but their first three songs were magnificent "Long, Long Way From Home", "Double Vision" and "Head Games". Then every song after that was almost as good. As I mentioned previously great singing and great musicianship, but........ When Thom Gimbel played the sax and Michael Bluestein played the keyboards that was a nice addition to the quality of the songs. (If Whitesnake's keyboardist hadn't been pointed out, I wouldn't have even noticed him. His keyboards were buried in the barrage of sound.)
If you're a big Foreigner fan, go ahead and go as you were going to go anyway. Again there's a lot to be said for this version of Foreigner. If you're a so so Foreigner fan, as I am, then this show wont make you and more or less of a Foreigner fan. If you know very little about this band grab "4" or a greatest hits collection and make your opinion from that. In other words seeing Foreigner live won't change your opinion about them.
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