So, just how long does your waaaaay-past-its-prime arena rock act have to circle the drain before you title a release Alive & Rockin\u2019<\/i>?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a rhetorical question, but observers could be forgiven for their skepticism when you combine that truly wretched title with a DVD of a nine-song opening-slot European-festival performance by the hanging-on remnants of a three-decades-old group that, let\u2019s be frank, wasn\u2019t all that impressive to begin with.<\/p>\n
Just as there must be an explanation for the existence of this DVD, though, there must be an explanation for the existence of this review, and it is this: Alive & Rockin\u2019<\/i> is — be still my heart — better than one might expect.<\/p>\n
It must also be said that Foreigner songwriter\/guitarist\/producer\/copyright holder Mick Jones surely owes Ronnie Montrose a beer for this review. For while I\u2019m typically queasy at the mere mention of the plethora of what are essentially cover bands with one!<\/i> original member lurking around the fringes of the classic rock scene these days, in recent years Ronnie\u2019s reconstituted Montrose lineup has played the classic tunes with genuine power and authority, and thereby given longtime fans some well-deserved thrills. Jones pulls off a similar feat here using the same technique: hire pros who love the music.<\/p>\n
In this case, the veteran lineup Jones has assembled under the Foreigner banner includes Jason Bonham (son of John and occasional Led Zeppelin touring drummer), Jeff Pilson (longtime Dokken bassist), late-era Foreigner recruits Jeff Jacobs (keys) and Tom Gimbel (rhythm guitar & sax), and lead vocalist Kelly Hansen, former frontman for late 80s-early 90s heavy metallers Hurricane. (If you don\u2019t think heavy metal is a small world, consider this; in its day Hurricane was often compared to Dokken and Foreigner, and Hurricane guitarist Doug Aldrich would go on to co-found the melodic hard rock group Burning Rain with vocalist Keith St. John\u2026 current frontman for the reconstituted Montrose.)<\/p>\n
In any revamped classic rock band the biggest challenge is replacing your recognizable lead voice, and here Jones has chosen well. Hansen\u2019s piercing, pleasantly rough-edged vocals are nearly a dead ringer for longtime Foreigner frontman Lou Gramm\u2019s, and he slides right into these songs like he belongs.<\/p>\n
The set, delivered in June of last year at the Bang Your Head!!! Festival in \u201cDouble Vision\u201d is a solid opener, getting the crowd singing along right away, even if it\u2019s among the most vapid lyrics ever penned by a band renowned for them. \u201cHead Games\u201d follows and takes on a nastier edge than was ever achieved by the synth-dominated studio version. \u201cDirty White Boy\u201d bounds in next, its lyric goofy as hell, its riff nonetheless undeniable. That is, in fact, the entire secret of this band\u2019s longevity right there — Mick Jones wrote several of the catchiest hard rock riffs to be found in Foreigner\u2019s 1977-81 heyday.<\/p>\n \u201cCold As Ice\u201d doesn\u2019t fare as well, its staccato piano melody falling rather flat in this rendition, but \u201cStarrider\u201d is a pleasant surprise, one of the better album cuts from the band\u2019s 1977 self-titled debut, given a strong and faithful reading. \u201cFeels Like The First Time\u201d and \u201cUrgent\u201d get the crowd into it once again, their sturdy hooks getting more than a few heads banging, and the faintly cheesy \u201cJuke Box Hero\u201d turns out to be more fun than I\u2019d have imagined, especially when they segue into \u201cWhole Lotta Love\u201d and actually pull it off, delivering an entirely worthy verse before returning to \u201cHero.\u201d<\/p>\n You can\u2019t get too excited about Alive & Kickin\u2019<\/i> — it\u2019s really an artifact of a time long passed. But nostalgia has its place, and in that context this DVD isn\u2019t bad, offering solid, professional performances of a set of respectably catchy arena rock tunes that the crowd clearly knows by heart. Fans will definitely enjoy this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":29046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7739],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-40562","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-foreigner","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40562"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40562"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}