Growing up in the 80’s, one of my favorite bands was Foreigner. I had never had a chance to see them live, until this past Wednesday night at Artpark in Lewiston, NY. Granted, there were no original members in the lineup, but that did not have an effect on the quality of the show.
Lead singer Kelly Hansen does a great job of belting out all of their hits, as well as making it a crowd pleasing rock ‘n roll show. From getting everyone to clap along, running all over the stage, and even scaling the stage scaffolding, he puts on quite a performance. Backed by some incredible musicians, Thom Gimbel who did triple duty on guitar, keyboards and sax throughout the night, played an incredible saxophone solo and electrified the crowd on “Urgent,” and Bruce Watson who had the unenviable task of replacing founding member Mick Jones on guitar, did a great job filling in.
From the opening notes of “Double Vision,” to the final encore, “Hot Blooded,” the band played faithful versions of Foreigner classics, and based on the crowd reaction, everybody had a great time. Hansen took plenty of time to address the crowd, and talk about the hospitality of the area, and the amount of hot women we have in the area. Getting an ovation from the crowd, he said he was just a “Dirty White Boy,” and had a song for incredibly gorgeous women.
Although there were plenty of highlights to talk about, two that stood out were; the Medina High School Choir who sang along with “I Want To Know What Love Is,” and the performance of “Jukebox Hero,” where not a single fan in attendance was not singing along, it was a deafening experience.
Although some may call these guys a cover band, they are as legit a band as you will see on a stage. Having never seen Foreigner in their hay day, I couldn’t imagine being more entertained hearing them play than with the lineup they have now.
Set List:
Double Vision
Head Games
Cold As Ice
Blue Morning
Dirty White Boy
Say You Will
Feels Like The First Time
Urgent
Jukebox Hero
Long Way From Home
I want To Know What Love Is
Encore:
Hot Blooded
We would like to thank John Lappen for the Foreigner photo pass and Maria Costello from Artpark for the tickets so BackstageAxxess could review the show.
