Night Ranger; Harrah's Chester, PA 8/19/10

[jimmy19029]

Finally! Night Ranger is back in our area after NINE years! And I was way overdue for a fix since I last saw them 18 years ago when they were playing clubs around here as a power trio and trying to stay alive during the Grunge era.

Since 1996 they've been back to their proper quintet formation and are back to booking better gigs. Guitarist Brad Gillis, vocalist/bassist Jack Blades and vocalist/drummer Kelly Keagy are still on hand, while keyboardist Christian Cullen and second guitarist Joel Hoekstra are the newcomers.

The showroom at Harrah's was only about half filled. But it turned out to be a very passionate crowd of NR fanatics who whooped, cheered and ran up to the stage constantly to shoot the band with their camera phones. When the group sang Sister Christian at the end, everyone, myself included, was up standing near the stage singing along.

The band got things underway nicely with This Boy Needs to Rock, which segued into Deep Purple's Highway Star, sung by Kelly.

Jack threw in a few of his Damn Yankees tunes, Coming of Age and High Enough, as well and he even had Brad talk to his guitar to see if it remembered any of the songs it had played during Brad's days with Ozzy Osbourne back in 1982. Sure enough, the guitar did remember and started to play CRAZY TRAIN.

There was even a brief amusing bit where Jack asked everyone onstage who their first concert was. Kelly's was the Doors(the band played a bit of Roadhouse Blues), Brad's was Led Zeppelin at Kezar Stadium(the band swung into the chorus of Whole Lotta Love), Joel's was Iron Maiden(the band played a bit of The Trooper) and Christian's was Van Halen, which he cued by doing the keyboard parts to Jump. Jack had been afraid Christian might say Madonna...or Boy George & the Culture Club.....Then Jack told us his was The Monkees...with the Jimi Hendrix Experience as the opening act(!) Jack had been totally into the Monkees then while his older brother was there to see Hendrix.

Christian then began a solo where he was "taking requests" as he would play the keyboard parts of various classic rock tunes...Saturday in the Park, Alone, etc., then stop part way through and go, "Nah"!

Jack talked of the many songs the band had contributed to movies(16 Candles, Out of Bounds, Boogie Nights, etc.) over the years(many of which he barely remembered) then told us the most fun on a film they ever had was when Michael J. Fox called them and asked them to compose the title track for his movie The Secret of My Success. It was great to hear this one live and their song Night Ranger, which had not been in the setlist but was played when someone in the audience shouted out for it.

Eddie's Coming Out Tonight had an interesting back story. Eddie was sort of a gangster looking guy who wore alligator shoes and a suit who used to walk into one of the clubs the guys used to play back in the early days in San Francisco. "Eddie loved rock & roll and loud guitars and when he showed up, we always knew it would be a great night", recalled Blades.

Yes, a rockin' rowdy set from one of my faves. I hope they don't keep us waiting as long next time for a return appearance!

Setlist:

This Boy Needs to Rock/Highway Star
Sing Me Away
You're Gonna Hear From Me
Rumors in the Air
Coming of Age
Night Ranger
Crazy Train
The Secret of My Success
Everyone's first concert bit...
Keyboard bits
Sentimental Street
Eddie's Coming Out Tonight
High Enough
Four in the Morning(Can't Take Anymore)
When You Close Your Eyes
Don't Tell Me You Love Me

Sister Christian
You Can Still Rock in America

[Moon Beam]

Great to read of this Sir, glad you enjoyed the show.
Thanks for posting a review here.

[RockInDetroit]

Better setlist than the one I had this summer. My setlist seemed to cut the slower hits like Sentimental Street/Goodbye in favor of harder rocking covers. Always love NR shows, but the more NR songs in the setlist the better. I am generally ok wth whatever they play but my friends that went were like enough with the covers and play NR songs......cuz they do not see them every year like I do.