One of the most consistent and underrated bands to come out of the San Francisco area has to be Night Ranger. It’s been 4 years since the band has played the WNY area, so many were appreciative when the Erie County Fair added the band to its lineup. Night Ranger’s lineup has been the same over the past few years, minus guitar played Joel Hoekstra who left for Whitesnake in August of 2014. Taking his place is guitar veteran Kerri Kelli (Alice Cooper, Vince Neil, John Waite, Slash’s Snakepit).
The band came out with Jack Blades moving about in front of the stage while both axeman played in front of the Night Ranger backdrop. You could tell this was going to be a special show, as the band reached back to play the more obscure song “Touch of Madness,” off of their biggest album to date in 1983’s “Midnight Madness.” In addition to playing deep cuts, of course the wide array of hits were played along with some medleys of various classic rock songs. Also thrown into the set were the two big hits “Coming of Age” and “High Enough” from bassist Jack Blades’ former side project “Damn Yankees.” It was a great mix of songs and the band seemed very happy to deliver the original songs as much as the covers. Blades and Gillis joked around after playing a few snippets of Steam and The Beatles songs by Blades saying our set list is like a box of chocolates and Gills remarking, “You never know what you are going to get,” (a famous comment from the Forrest Gump movie).
Blades called drummer Kelly Keagy one of the top 5 signing drummers of all time before he took the stage to sing “Sentimental Street.” Before playing a little bit of Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out,” Blades talked about how Cooper played Fox & Friends morning show on 8//14/15 and that they were the guest for the following week 8/21/15 and that everyone was welcome to join them.
The boys further talked about how they used to play the Palms Café in San Francisco before their first album “Dawn Patrol” was released and that the song “Eddie’s Comin’ out Tonight” was inspired by their times there. Kelli went unplugged for “High Enough” and both he and Gillis played acoustic on “Goodbye,” where Keagy handled vocals and Blades joined him for the choruses. Stagehands stuck an American flag at each end of their stage as the band kicked off their last song of the evening, “(You Can Still) Rock in America.” With Gillis playing a guitar painted with an America flag to also keep with the patriotic theme.
Even with the guitarist change, the band still remains a solid outfit and one that needs to be seen. Night Ranger still sounds as good as they ever did!
Setlist:
Touch of Madness
Sing me Away
Four in the Morning
Coming of Age (Damn Yankees cover) (Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Hey Hey Goodbye (Steam cover – medley) Hey Jude (The Beatles cover – medley)
Secret of my Success
Sentimental Street
School’s Out (Alice Cooper cover – medley) Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne cover – medley)
High Road
Eddie’s Comin’ Out Tonight
High Enough (Damn Yankees cover)
Goodbye
When You Close Your Eyes
Don’t Tell Me You Love Me/Highway Star (Deep Purple cover – snippet)
Encore:
Sister Christian
(You Can Still) Rock in America
We would like to thank Jennifer Freed from McGhee Entertainment for the photo pass.
