Huey Lewis and the News 6/15/2007

When I was 8 years old I watched Back To The Future and right afterwards I made two purchases. First, I bought a calculator watch which I wore for the next 3 years. Secondly, I bought a Huey Lewis and the News album. Yes, on vinyl. After not doing anything but listening to Sports for months, I quickly saved up enough money to buy the rest of his catalog. With the release of Hard At Play in 1991, I lost touch with the band, however I never lost the desire to see them play live. I saw that Huey was coming to my home town this summer and immediately snatched up 5^th row seats. For the two months between the time I bought the tickets, and the day of the show, I did little but listen to Huey's music. Not sure what to expect from his performance, I hoped for a setlist focusing on his material from the 80's.

With no opening act, right at 9 PM, the lights went out. A faint thumping could be heard coming from the speakers with the stage still empty. "Da Dum.... Da Dum... Da Dum... Da Dum..." Of course this could be the intro to one song, "Heart Of Rock & Roll". At least I hoped so. And then - SMACK! The band was on stage, the lights were on, and Huey Lewis and the News were playing one of their huge hits and sounding just as good as they did when releasing the song in 1983. The fifty-something ladies ran up to the front and stage right to dance the night away. Well, there was one old guy dancing as well, but for the most part it was ladies reliving the good old days. When Huey was naming the cities where the "Heart of Rock and Roll is Still Beatin", he switched "Detriot!" with "Reno!", which got the crowd really going.

The next two songs were off of albums released after Small World, so I couldn't sing along. However I did nod my head and tap my index finger to the beat on the side of my $9.00 plastic margarita cup. Luckily, that was it for the 'newer' songs and the rest of the set was made up of greatest hits. Small World, Stuck With You, Power Of Love and Hip To Be Square were all up in the main set.

The main set ended with a couple of covers. First up was a Fat Domino cover of Mother In Law, as well as a story about how Fat Domino survived Hurricane Katrina after many thought he was dead. The last cover of the night was of another early Rock & Roll pioneer, Lee Dorsey, featuring the song Workin In The Coal Mine.

The encore started off with Back In Time and everyone was finally standing and jumping around and dancing. Another old guy joined the ladies up front, and even a couple of frat guys were seen down there dancing. The showed closed with Workin For A Livin. Just short of two hours after the lights went out marking the shows start, they were back on signifying the shows end. Despite being around for over 27 years, Huey and the News put on a show better than any band currently in their prime. If Huey is in your town, make sure you drop everything and go to this show!