Hit the Hampton Beach Casino in New Hampshire last weekend for 2 gigs. One I purchased a ticket for ages ago and the other was a last minute very nice surprise to meet and interview one of the musicians for something large in the works. Both gigs not strictly metal but here goes:
Foreigner 6/29
Lets not avoid the elephant in the room here and say Mick Jones wasn’t on stage so that equals no original members. Can you imagine the die-hard Kiss fans if faced with this, there’s enough shit for them to throw when two of the originals are absent. The impression I got was either most people didn’t know or didn’t care as long as the show was good.
It was a fantastic show. Hit after hit after hit after hit after hit and on and on carried off with a band on top of its game. Opening with Double Vision the band played a rocking 11 song set in front of a sell out crowd. Highlights for me were Dirty White Boy and an extended version of Juke Box Hero where the musicians really showed their chops. It’s the third time I have seen the band with Kelly Hansen on vocals and he really has made the material his own, he looks as comfortable fronting the band in clubs as he does arenas. They also do a great unplugged version of Say You Will with everyone adding harmonies. Being a big fan of the band I would have loved them to play some stuff off Inside Information like The Beat Of My Heart or Heart Turns To Stone or maybe Tooth And Nail from Agent Provocateur but what do you leave out. Leave your pre-conceptions at the door and go take a peek.
http://www.foreigneronline.com/
Tesla 6/30
Visits by the band to Hampton Beach are now are now on a annual basis. I caught them play a great show here two years ago and missed them last year so I was looking forward to this one. To be honest it wasn’t as good as the Foreigner show, it was good but I was expecting more. The setlist didn’t rock as much as I would have liked. Opening with I Want To Live from Forever More was a great choice but there really was nothing else in the set that had that upbeat tempo. Instead it was mid-paced fare like Hang Tough, Heaven’s Trail, Lazy Days Crazy Nights and Mama’s Fool that dominated. All solid stuff but a little samey for me. Heavy on the slower stuff too, Love Song, What You Give and The Way It Is got aired. They pulled out Into The Now and Cumin’ Atcha Live for the unplugged set that would have been far better with electricity. New song Taste The Pain sounded promising but don’t tell the dickhead in front of me who jeered when they announced they were playing it and only wanted Mechanical Resonance. I love it when bands play new stuff and it was only one song early in the set for christ sakes.
As for vocalist Jeff Keith, well there’s more meat on a butcher’s pencil. He is painfully thin. That wouldn’t matter if he could sing like he used to but he can’t. You could really see him struggle on the unplugged Paradise. He is also not the most dynamic frontman out there often letting the excellent Frank Hannon take over the mic to talk to the crowd. The majority of the beer and sweat soaked crowd did leave happy and the set finished strong with Modern Day Cowboy and an encore of Gettin’ Better and Little Suzi. Just slip in Edison’s Medicine, Rock Me To The Top or please please please Don’t De Rock Me to liven it up a little next time.
Richie.
