Supporting act: LOVERBOY
Venue: Ruoff Music Center 07-21-2023
It was a surprisingly cool Friday night at Ruoff Music Center as Live Nation presented the Foreigner Farewell Tour with Loverboy.
Dudes at Ruoff Music Center 07-21-2023 ©JohnGeiger
This tour began on July 6, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia, and Foreigner expects it will take around two years to complete. Their plan is to play in all the cities that they have visited previously since 2004 (the year of the Foreigner reformation).
The Canadian band Loverboy (formed in 1979) took the stage promptly at 7:30 pm with all the original band members except for the late bass guitarist, Scott Smith, who was replaced by Ken “Spider” Sinnaeve.
LOVERBOY at Ruoff Music Center 07-21-2023 ©JohnGeiger
With Mike Reno on lead vocals, Paul Dean on guitar, Matt Frenette on drums, and Doug Johnson on keyboards, Loverboy played for a solid hour blasting out their 1980’s fan–favorite hits including “Lovin’ Every Minute of It”, “Turn Me Loose”, and “Working for the Weekend” to name a few. Every song had the crowd on their feet, erupting in applause and singing every word by heart.
LOVERBOY at Ruoff Music Center 07-21-2023 ©JohnGeiger
After a half-hour break to reset the stage, Foreigner came out loud, energetic, and kicking ass with “Double Vision” as their opening song.
Kelly Hanson of FOREIGNER at Ruoff Music Center 07-21-2023 ©JohnGeiger
Whereas Loverboy has only one non-original band member, Foreigner only has one original, founding member Mick Jones on guitar. Their current line-up also includes, Kelly Hansen on vocals, Jeff Pilson on bass guitar, Michael Bluestein on keyboards, Bruce Watson and Luis Maldonado on guitar, and Chris Frazier on the drums.
Bruce Watson of FOREIGNER at Ruoff Music Center 07-21-2023 ©JohnGeiger
“Head Games”, “Cold as Ice”, and “Dirty White Boy” were just a few of their numerous hit songs on the setlist for the night.
Midway through the evening, they pulled up chairs and played a nice trio of acoustic songs. It took a lot of the energy out of the night, but at the same time some very touching sentiments about the band and its history from charming and funny front-man Kelly Hansen.
Bruce Watson and Luis Maldonado of FOREIGNER at Ruoff Music Center 07-21-2023 ©JohnGeiger
Two more hits, “Feels Like the First Time” and then “Urgent” before a keytar and then a drum solo that I think they could have done without. A keytar is one of those portable keyboards with a guitar-like fret-handle that artists used in the 80s They were certainly throwing it back in time.
Closing out the set with their smash hit, “Juke Box Hero” was a real treat.
As I looked around throughout the night, there were hardly any fans that were not up out of their seat swaying and singing to the songs.
Kelly Hanson of FOREIGNER at Ruoff Music Center 07-21-2023 ©JohnGeiger
After leaving the stage for just a few minutes, the band was back out for the encore with their number one hit, “I Want to Know What Love Is”.
The show closer, “Hot Blooded”, ended the night on a solid note complete with pyrotechnics.
Kelly Hanson of FOREIGNER at Ruoff Music Center 07-21-2023 ©JohnGeiger