Saw The Foreigner Experience last night

[The Shark]

These guys are from the Ft. Lauderdale area.  They have about eight guys that make up four tribute bands.  Foreigner, Aerosmith, Loverboy and Bad Company.

The Foreigner offering was really good.  The only songs they played that I didn't play in my band in the last 45 years were Juke Box Hero, I Want to Know What Love Is, Dirty White Boy and Star Rider.  So, I've played almost their entire list.  Star Rider was really well done.  Feels Like the First Time was almost spot on.    

The guitarist was superb.  Really polished guy with a killer tone (couldn't see his "meat and potatoes" due to most of his rig being behind his speaker cab).  Had some kind of power amp facing away too.  Wasn't tube.  Nice pedalboard up front.  His tone was really fantastic.  They broke off into Whole Lotta' Love and the guy ripped on that solo.  The entire original note for note which he expanded with his own version.  Every Foreigner solo was spot on.  

Drummer was very good.  Bass player never looked at the guitar and played flawlessly.  

The singer had the toughest assignment of any tribute band I've seen other than Queen.  Styx and Kansas bands might have a claim.  He never broke into falsetto, unless it was how Lou sang it.  Good stuff.

The keyboard guy was good, but his tones were very "Casio-esque".  The "Sax" sound was really bad.  Urgent suffered.  The guitar sounded more like a sax!

You're most likely to only see these guys in Florida.  But they are worth seeing. Mostly in their forties and fifties I'd guess.

It's not lost on me that I'm almost exclusively going to see cover bands live these days.  Frampton (who plays left-handed) is Saturday night. I'm skeptical.  

The Athens Theatre in DeLand Florida is a venue to experience.    

 

 

Edited May 31, 2024 by The Shark

[cmatthes]

We've covered "Dirty White Boy" for almost 20 years now!  We opt not to play that one in outdoor, family-friendly gigs though...

[mathman]

On 5/30/2024 at 11:10 PM, The Shark said:

The Athens Theatre in DeLand Florida is a venue to experience.    

Daytona Beach's Bandshell has a lot of these tribute cover bands during the summer.  

[bry4321]

Bonus: The Foreigner Experience has nearly as many original band members as Foreigner does. 

Edited June 1, 2024 by bry4321

[Biz Prof]

8 hours ago, bry4321 said:

Bonus: The Foreigner Experience has nearly as many original band members as Foreigner does. 

Based on reports of Mick sitting backstage for 50% or more of each show, this is factually correct.

[The Shark]

13 hours ago, mathman said:

Daytona Beach's Bandshell has a lot of these tribute cover bands during the summer.  

I played a high-school showcase at the Bandshell on March 28th, 1979.  I remember because it was my birthday.  Our agent booked it and invited over thirty high-schools to come to audition his bands.  They sent about twenty kids from each school and six to ten Admin/teachers in school buses.  Maybe 600 people.  Each band played four songs.  I remember we played Tie Your Mother Down, Hot Blooded, Give a Little Bit and Roundabout.  They looked at us like we had three heads.  But we did get two proms for our trouble.  I think there were adults that had a say in things.  

Edited June 2, 2024 by The Shark

[bry4321]

19 minutes ago, The Shark said:

I played a high-school showcase at the Bandshell on March 28th, 1979.  I remember because it was my birthday.  Our agent booked it and invited over thirty high-schools to come to audition his bands.  They sent about twenty kids from each school and six to ten Admin/teachers in school buses.  Maybe 600 people.  Each band played four songs.  I remember we played Tie Your Mother Down, Hot Blooded, Give a Little Bit and Roundabout.  They looked at us like we had three heads.  But we did get two proms for our trouble.  I think there were adults that had a say in things.  

One of these songs is not like the others…

[The Shark]

6 minutes ago, bry4321 said:

One of these songs is not like the others…

Explain...

[Steve Haynie]

Tie Your Mother Down is the one that school administrators would have to frown upon way back then.

[JGale]

Was Supertramp a thing in 1979?

[bry4321]

12 hours ago, The Shark said:

Explain...

The first three songs are ones that I could envision a talented h.s. band pulling off. But Roundabout seems to be a notch above in complexity. That's all I meant and I may be wrong!

Edit: I see now I misread your post, you were not in high school but your band was auditioning for gigs!

Edited June 2, 2024 by bry4321

[hamerican gigolo]

13 hours ago, JGale said:

Was Supertramp a thing in 1979?

Yep. 😀

[cmatthes]

13 hours ago, JGale said:

Was Supertramp a thing in 1979?

That was perhaps the only year they were relevant.  “Breakfast in America” was out and they charted several singles that year.  Muse is a huge fan of that band… 😂

[JGale]

My bad. That would be right around the timeframe my roommate in college brought home that album which I thought was odd given his predilection for Who, Who, and nothing but the Who. So we danced, like a wave on the ocean, bromance, and “Take the long way home” became our motto for all the epic adventures we undertook, although, sometimes I’m not sure we mixed up long for wrong, like the time we tried to climb Mt. Marcy in the winter with borrowed gear, and a half hour out from the dam his prestigious Donner hiking boots had soaked through and his feet were at the numb, beginning to get warm again stage of frostbite. We made it back to shelter at the dam and I got to use the olde wilderness man trick of colder than cold feet against my bare chest, for survival! See. See what I did there? I turned a trivial comment into a stream of consciousness rant. Now you.

[cmatthes]

Extra points granted for the Hooters reference, JG!

[Jakeboy]

Dirty White Boy is so much fun to play…

[The Shark]

7 hours ago, bry4321 said:

The first three songs are ones that I could envision a talented h.s. band pulling off. But Roundabout seems to be a notch above in complexity. That's all I meant and I may be wrong!

Edit: I see now I misread your post, you were not in high school but your band was auditioning for gigs!

I was a Junior in high school.  Started gigging with a booked band in 1978 at 16 years old.  We played fraternity parties and high-school proms and other private gigs.  Roundabout is something we've always played.  Other Yes as well, but not lately.  All we play now is Your Move/Seen All Good People.  

Same guys for 46 years.  Lost the bass player last August.  I went to school with the new guy since second grade.  Never knew he played bass and sang until a few years ago.