Key Arena, Seattle ..Friday, Oct. 21

[tater1977]

Journey, Foreigner Pay Tribute to Themselves at KeyArena
Friday, Oct. 21

By Dave LakeMon., Oct. 24 2011 at 8:02 AM

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2 ... ribute.php


Question: What separates a tribute band from the real thing? Is the current Guns N' Roses still Guns N' Roses even if the band features only the guy who sang the hits--and who owns the name--and not any of the other players who made the band significant? Answer: I'm not entirely sure, but the line is getting blurrier and blurrier. Take, for example, Friday night's triple bill of arena rock at the Key featuring Night Ranger, Foreigner, and Journey, all of which played to a sold out crowd, but none of which featured a lineup that most fans would consider its "classic" one. And one of which, Foreigner, that included zero members from its first two decades, the years they scored all their big hits. The show, stop #91 on a six-month world tour, was also the final one.

The band that came closest to capturing the magic of their classic lineup was Night Ranger, which still features Brad Gillis, Jack Blades, and Kelly Keagy, all of whom founded the band together in 1979. They played an energetic and efficient set of hits including "Sister Christian" and "(You Can Still) Rock in America."

Foreigner played next, and as enjoyable as they were Friday night, it would be hard to label them as anything other than a very good tribute band. Though founder Mick Jones is still an official band member, illness has kept him off much of the tour, including Friday's show. That leaves the current six-piece lineup without a single member who played on any of the band's platinum albums, which isn't to say that the band lacks pedigree or proficiency, but doesn't exactly make them the Foreigner most people know from the radio. Singer Kelly Hansen did time in the '80s hard-rock band Hurricane, while bassist Jeff Pilson spent many years in Dokken.

The band took most of their moves and banter from the arena-rock playbook ("Make some noise, Seattle!"), though there was a bit of spontaneity as members of Night Ranger and Journey, plus a few dozen crew members, filed onstage for the band's final performance on the tour of "I Want to Know What Love Is." Hansen's voice isn't as unique as Lou Gramm's, but he has a comparable range and he had good command over both the songs and the stage. Having said that, many members of the audience Friday night likely had no idea who was--or wasn't--onstage. What mattered to the crowd were the songs, and they sang along enthusiastically to hits like "Cold as Ice," "Waiting for a Girl Like You," and "Hot Blooded."





The story of Journey's lineup changes are a bit better publicized, with golden-voiced Filipino Arnel Pineda becoming Journey's lead singer after guitarist Neal Schon saw clips of him on YouTube sounding just like former Journey frontman Steve Perry. If you close your eyes, you'd never know that a 5'3" Filipino man was singing "Separate Ways." Pineda's voice is uncannily Perry-like, and it was thrilling to hear Journey songs fill an arena, which they still do better than songs by almost any other act. However, the band has little chemistry with Pineda, and though he was endlessly energetic, there was minimal between-song chatter and very little history for Pineda to draw on. After all, he joined them in 2007. He's a gifted singer, but lacks the necessary charisma to lead a band of Journey's stature.

Schon, with bassist Ross Valory and keyboardist Jonathan Cain, all longtime members of the group, moved occasionally and deliberately across the stage, while Pineda jumped, karate-kicked, and ran from one side of the stage to the other, giving off a different energy than the rest of the band as he did his best to keep the crowd engaged. Journey's set didn't feel like a historic group playing their hits as much as like a bunch of aging rock vets showing off the kid wonder they discovered on the Internet. Or the way it felt to see INXS replace Michael Hutchence with a dude they found on a reality TV show. It was nostalgic but inauthentic.

For the 17,000 people that filled KeyArena Friday night, however, it was the songs and not the singer. The experience is what seemed to matter most. Many concertgoers wouldn't know Lou Gramm from Lou Reed, but they know they love '80s arena rock, which is what they got in spades. And with each act offering a reasonable facsimile of their once-classic lineups, who really cares? Besides, seeing the Cars or Motley Crue in 2011, both of which tour with all their original members (or at least the living ones), isn't like seeing those bands in their heyday either. Any way you slice it, they're all just paying tribute to their glory days, either with all their original members or none.

Personal bias: iPhone apps that look like a lighter should not be substituted for the real thing on "Faithfully."

BTW: Journey filmed footage for their "Resonate" video during the show, which replaced "Escape" in their set.
R

[brywool]

This is pretty accurate. While I thought that Arnel did his best to get the crowd going, the rest of the band... kind of really needed to take a cue from Foreigner. Each of Foreigner's members were "working" the crowd in their own way and they really put on a great "SHOW". Foreigner's members were all over the place, which was cool. Having Foreigner before Journey kind of makes that difference more pronounced. Where Foreigner (the band, not just Kelly) was more in your face than Journey, Journey tended to rely more on the songs to get the crowd going and left all the "let's generate excitement" to Arnel. I thought Hansen was singing great and as a front guy, he was good, but all the stuff he does is pretty much standard fair as frontguys go, so while he was good, there was nothing that unique about him in the front guy department to me. Still, I liked them quite a bit. He looks so much like Steven Tyler with the black and white striped shirt he had on. I swear he had on my 12 year old nieces stretchy jeans though.

With Journey, Neal and Arnel (and Deen from behind the kit) were pretty energetic and Neal was all smiles (which he wasn't when I saw him with Augeri), but man, Jon and Ross (as we know) just kind of stand there. The band is also incredibly spread apart which makes interaction tough. Journey (other than the vocalist) has never really been about "The Show" and each guy being in your face. It's always been about "The Music". Perry was great at involving the audience for sure and that's why Journey added a front guy in the first place.

Arnel was doing what he could, but the rest of the guys kind of need to help with that too. Not to get the crowd going, but to bring energy to the show. It would've been cool to see the kind of camaraderie between band members that Night Ranger and Foreigner showed. They were both very "Hey, it's the end of the tour, let's mess with each other" and it was fun. There was a cool fist bump moment with Neal and Arnel and you could tell Neal was happy to be there. Journey, as usual, was very serious. They always have been so it's nothing new. Having two bands play ahead of you that are really working their tails off and laughing themselves silly to get the crowd into it means that Journey has to step it up too. I can't fault Arnel, Neal, or Deen really here as they were working it as best they could. For Jon and Ross, it's just not their deal to run all over the place.

I gotta say, I saw Foreigner in Seattle when "4" came out originally. I also saw them when they toured with Journey when Augeri was there. Kelly Hansen's Foreigner, while looking nothing like the real thing... was a BETTER show than the real thing was by a mile either time I saw them.

Funny thing about Night Ranger... er, The Knight Rangers - as we were walking out, their keyboardist was right in front of me lugging a rolling suitcase. I was the only person that recognized him. I just said "Great set man". It's kind of funny that you can be up in front of 17,000 folks and walk out unnoticed.

Night Ranger was and always has been a really FUN band. Kudos to Deen for coming out to play drums on Sister Christian and also to Ross for coming out on "I Want to Know What Love Is".

As for Arnel, he sang his a$$ off. No question. Yeah, he draws the notes out in "Faithfully" but it really worked and there was definite emotion happening there. My wife actually teared up, which I've never seen her do with music. The guy didn't miss a note, nor was he rough, or burned out (which I was worried about as it's the end of the tour). He was great vocally.

Oh yeah, as far as "This band's a tribute, that band's a tribute" NOBODY there cared. The songs were what tweaked everybody's emotional nipples, not the band members.

[Michigan Girl]

Geez, this sounds eerily similar to a review posted in another thread ...tribute bands,
using GNR as an example ...but this isn't the same guy, is it?!?

If I were to vote for one star of this tour, it would be Kelly Hansen.
He may be a replacement singer, his voice may not be as unique
as Lou's, but duhhhammm, I can't believe he is not a star in his
own right without the Foreigner name/songs ...he oozes charisma,
and yes, it matters!!

I'm certain Night Ranger would've pulled top spot, for me, had their set been longer
and they were able to play more from SIC ...geeezzzz, I love that LP!!

[brywool]

Geez, this sounds eerily similar to a review posted in another thread ...tribute bands,
using GNR as an example ...but this isn't the same guy, is it?!?

If I were to vote for one star of this tour, it would be Kelly Hansen.
He may be a replacement singer, his voice may not be as unique
as Lou's, but duhhhammm, I can't believe he is not a star in his
own right without the Foreigner name/songs ...he oozes charisma,
and yes, it matters!!

I'm certain Night Ranger would've pulled top spot, for me, had their set been longer
and they were able to play more from SIC ...geeezzzz, I love that LP!!

Jack is F'ing funny. With Tommy Shaw... man, those guys together are freaking HILARIOUS.

[Gideon]

FILMED 'Resonate'?

[brywool]

[quote="Gideon"]FILMED 'Resonate'? [/quote

Yup]

[Gideon]

FILMED 'Resonate'? [/quote

Yup]

Details.

[brywool]

FILMED 'Resonate'? [/quote

Yup]

Details.

Hi Gid-
Not much to tell actually. They started that kind of "Hum" that's at the beginning of the track (and I'm thinking "NO WAY...!") Then Arnel said something like "Hey Seattle! We're filming a new video for our new song "Resonate"- Smile, you're going to be on tv" or something close to that. I don't remember exactly what he said (and yes I understood him fine- all night as a matter of fact, I just have a crap memory!). Then they played the song. There was a camera woman on stage left and I believe one above the band too. This was the one song (for me) where his voice could've been louder on the verses (the choruses were fine), but I imagine they will sync it with the studio version anyway. With this one and City of Hope after they played them, there was a definite lull in the audience. I think people just didn't know the tunes. But it was a great performance and Arnel nailed the high notes in the last verse. In fact, the band played great the entire night. I did hear a couple of clams with Foreigner, but only 2.