Journey and Foreigner - played the Xcel Energy

[tater1977]

Review: Journey and Foreigner's new frontmen have the swagger down pat

http://www.twincities.com/entertainment/ci_18572895

Lead singers. Can't live with them, can't live without them. Or maybe you can.

Two of the biggest bands from the late '70s and early '80s - Journey and Foreigner - played the Xcel Energy Center on Thursday night and proved it is possible to replace an errant rock-and-roll frontman, as long as you replace him with another guy who sounds exactly the same.

Foreigner lost Lou Gramm to a brain tumor that changed both his voice and his priorities - he now makes Christian rock records - while Journey fell out with Steve Perry years ago over, no lie, the timing of his hip-replacement surgery.

Given that mortgages don't pay themselves, both bands cycled through a few vocalists before settling on guys skilled at Xerox-like replication.

In the case of Foreigner, guitarist and songwriter Mick Jones is the only founding member left in the group, and since 2005, he has employed metal vet Kelly Hansen up front. The 50-year-old, who led the long-forgotten hairspray act Hurricane, not only nailed Gramm's classics Thursday night but did so with the sort of arrogant confidence one expects from a sleazy rock singer. (He also looked the part, too, coming off a bit like Steven Tyler's little brother.)

While Foreigner has released new music as recently as 2009, the band wisely stuck to the big, and old, guns. Every song they played was a hit from their golden era, from "Feels Like the First Time" to "Hot Blooded" to "Waiting for a Girl Like You."

It was an hour long classic-rock block, delivered with a wink and a smile.
What makes Foreigner's hits still resonate today is the ridiculous, hedonistic thread that runs through them. Journey specialized in uplifting jock jams, but Foreigner's songs worked best as the soundtrack for small-town teens to get wasted and have sex with each other on the hoods of Trans Ams.

Speaking of Journey, they recruited Filipino pop star Arnel Pineda in 2007 after hearing his jaw-dropping impersonation of Perry via YouTube.

Kelly Hansen, left, and Mick Jones of Foreigner performed at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Thursday, July 28, 2011. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)And, wow, he truly does replicate Perry's vocal mannerisms to an almost eerie degree.
Now in his second major tour with Journey, Pineda seems to have settled rather comfortably into the lead singer position. And at 43, he brings a real, fresh energy to a band in which most members have a good 15 to 20 years on him.

Really, though, both Journey and Foreigner - along with openers Night Ranger, who plowed through a guitar-heavy 30-minute set - delivered pretty much everything the revved-up crowd of 13,563 could have hoped to hear.

The tour, which is hitting mostly outdoor amphitheaters, was designed with enough shock and awe to compete with all the distractions of a gorgeous summer evening.

It may sound crazy, but the show felt even more powerful and goofy and fun when confined within the walls of a hockey arena. Hold on to that feeling, man.

[Andrew]

Foreigner's songs worked best as the soundtrack for small-town teens to get wasted and have sex with each other on the hoods of Trans Ams.

Love that line!

[steveo777]

Foreigner's songs worked best as the soundtrack for small-town teens to get wasted and have sex with each other on the hoods of Trans Ams.

Love that line!

Uh, ya....back in the day I was more than in the middle of that line. Nothing like being 16......it was hot.

[RocknRoll]

Here's the review from the Star. This one is interesting since this reviewer is also pretty funny.

http://www.startribune.com/entertainmen ... 69918.html

Jukebox heroes pack
Xcel Center like it's
1983
Article by: , Star Tribune

Blame it on Tony Soprano, Rachel and Finn,
and the Twins bullpen.

Like the custard inside the eclair, Journey's
"Don't Stop Believin'" was the gooey
centerpiece in Thursday's fluffy Xcel Energy
Center show with fellow power-ballad heroes
Foreigner and Night Ranger. Released back
in 1981 -- and seemingly left for dead
alongside souped-up Ford Pintos and giant
jean-pocket combs -- the song recently
resurfaced in "The Sopranos" finale, then in
"Glee." Now, Target Field plays it whenever
things aren't going well. So yeah, we locals
have heard it a lot.

The "Believin'" revival had to be the main
reason for the mass turnout at Thursday's
concert in St. Paul, despite the calendar
reading 2011. Despite tickets topping out at $
125. Even despite the glaring absence of
the original singers in two of the three
groups (only Night Ranger has its same
guys).

The four-hour show drew an upper-deck-
filling crowd of 13,563, including 13 or 14
people under the age of 40. They all had to
wait till the end to hear "Believin'." It arrived
with the loudest shriek this side of a Justin
Bieber concert (except in this case, men
contributed). Things got downright religious
from there, so much so that the confetti
guns at the end could have been mistaken
for people's heads blowing apart.

The concert was loaded with hug-your-
neighbor moments, though.

Perhaps making up for their lack of original
frontmen, Journey and Foreigner played
their dinosaur tracks as if the goal was to
sound exactly like the records. Journey's 80-
minute set opened with the perfectly rolled
thunder of "Separate Ways" and ended with
the perfect one-song singalong encore,
"Any Way You Want It." The mid-show
highlight "Stone in Love" -- with its shout-
out to summer nights and guitarist Neal
Schon's precise solo -- was almost too
perfect.

Journey's peppy new singer, Arnel Pineda,
whom the band discovered in the Philippines
via YouTube, truly is a wonder. As in, you
wonder: How can one other human being
sound so much like ex-singer Steve Perry?
And how much does he get paid for being
the most crucial hired-gun in classic-rock?

Foreigner's Kelly Hansen also hit most of his
predecessor Lou Gramm's notes and
strutted across the stage as if he's the star
of the group -- never mind stiff founding
guitarist Mick Jones, 66. Equally stiff were the
band's video backdrops of ocean sunsets
(for "I've Been Waiting for a Girl Like You")
and cheap, "Guitar Hero"-styled videogame
graphics ("Juke Box Hero").

Props should go to Hansen for the most
unintentionally funny introduction of the
show: Before the mercilessly repetitious "I
Want to Know What Love Is," he urged, "Sing
along to this one. It's not hard."

Also easy: Can you guess if the crowd did as
he said?

Also, here's a fantastic pic of the stage and crowd.

http://twitpic.com/5xg8cr