Concert Review: Foreigner with a Very Special Guest, Wildhorse Saloon, Nashville, TN 10/9/2008

Foreigner took the Wildhorse by storm tonight in a truly enjoyable show. The list of their hits from the 70s and 80s is truly impressive, and they played plenty of them, much to the crowd's delight. This latest lineup of musicians from varied backgrounds, including sole original member, guitarist Mick Jones, and a founding member of Dokken on bass, brought new life into the lineup of classic Foreigner tunes. People were rocking to the upbeat songs and couples were seen slow-dancing to the ballads.

Let's get this out of the way right up front. Some critics have called this reincarnation of Foreigner a cover band, albeit it the best one you'll ever hear. Technically that's correct. Would Led Zeppelin be Led Zeppelin with a substitute for Robert Plant? However, singer/guitarist/songwriter Mick Jones is still in, and he has always been the driving force behind the band. Obviously there would be no Foreigner without original singer/songwriter Lou Gramm. But Gramm left the group a few times while Jones has always been in. So it is he who is holding the tradition together.

So that obviously raises a big question. Does current lead singer Kelly Hansen make the grade? Well, he's a great front man, moving around energetically the whole show and using the entire stage doing so. And his vocals are great; he hits all the notes flawlessly, and since Foreigner's repertoire requires a lot of range, that's saying quite a bit. He's also having a lot of fun up there, and it's contagious. However, I think he just lacks a bit of the edginess that was present in Gramm's vocals. But overall, this shortcoming is not enough to consider the performance a disappointment. He's got good pipes and the lack of edginess is made up for in attitude.

I guess there was another trade off too. I was disappointed that drummer Jason Bonham (son of Led Zep's John) had recently left the group. So the pattern of churn in and out of this band continues into the present. But this was compensated for by the tremendous sax solo by rhythm guitarist Tom Gimbel on "Urgent". If you closed your eyes you would have thought that Junior Walker was up there again.

So what did they play? Well, just about everything you'd probably want to hear. Just pick up the old album "Foreigner Records" (one of several greatest hits compilations). The only track they didn't play from that CD was "Long, Long Way From Home". Now that's a good song, but it wasn't missed when you consider they played everything else. Okay, I'll name a few: "Cold As Ice", "Double Vision", "Waiting for a Girl Like You", "Feels Like the First Time", etc. They also played a brand new tune, "Too Late", from their latest greatest hits compilation, and it is good. I didn't particularly care for the mood breaking "Starrider" (too slow and too long), but the "Juke Box Hero/Whole Lotta Love" medley was a good antidote.

Oh yeah, the headline of this review did mention something about a special guest, didn't it? I don't think you would guess who in a million years, even if I did give you a hint by reminding you this show was in Nashville. But according to the bartender, Wynona was catching the previous night's show, and apparently the band invited her to join them for a song tonight. So for the encore, she was introduced and did a hot duet with Hansen on "I Want To Know Where Love Is". The girl has good pipes also. Unfortunately she didn't stop there, but I'm not blaming her. It looked like the band coaxed her into staying on for 'Hot Blooded", but apparently they didn't rehearse that one because Wynona obviously didn't know the words. My first thought was where has this girl been the past twenty years, but hey, she's all about country, and that's really a whole different universe. I mean, Garth Brooks is a huge country star and I wouldn't be able to sing any of his songs, so I understand what happened. But it did put a damper on what should have been their smoking finale.

But make no mistake about it; this was a great show. The audience was on its' feet for at least half the show, there was dancing going on, and many couples were obviously reliving perhaps romantic memories through the music. And the music was simply great. So don't worry about a cover band; it's a good band, and if you like the music you should go see the show if you get the chance.