Foreigner - Alive & Rockin'
Performance
Production
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Foreigner - Alive & Rockin'
Performance
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For those of us arena-rock lovers of the late 70's and early 80's, it didn't get any better than those first four Foreigner albums. Formed in 1976 by veteran British guitarist Mick Jones, Foreigner went on to sell more than 50 million albums worldwide, including five top ten albums in a row, and a slew of top ten singles. This was due in part to the instant songwriting chemistry between Jones and Foreigner's original leather-lunged lead vocalist Lou Gramm who wrote some of the catchiest hooks, riffs, and melodies ever laid down to vinyl. By 2003 Gramm had quit Foreigner for second time, and Jones was now the sole original member left to carry on the band. In 2005, Jones decided to reform Foreigner once again hiring veteran rockers Kelly Hansen (vocals), Jason Bonham (drums), Jeff Jacobs (keyboards), Tom Gimbel (guitars, saxophone, flute) and Jeff Pilson (bass). So as you can see, this lineup is about as much the original Foreigner, as the current versions of Journey and Styx are those original bands, but who the hell cares, because they are each still churning out some pretty kick ass live shows for us fans who may not have had the opportunity to see them in their heyday. I had recently heard that Foreigner were throwing down some pretty amazing performances on their most recent tour, and this video proves those rumors to be true. This year Foreigner are celebrating their 30th anniversary, which I find to be pretty amazing since I can clearly remember picking up their debut album the first week it came out. That was 1977 kids! Mick Jones is in his 60's now, and what little bit of hair he has left on his head is completely gray now, but the guy is still stroking his Les Paul better than ever. Alive & Rockin' was recorded live on June 23rd, 2006 at the Bang Your Head!!! Festival, in Balingen, Germany. The guys in Foreigner admittedly felt a bit out of place on this predominantly heavy metal bill, considering that it featured the likes of In Flames, Stratovarious, Exodus, Armored Saint and other similarly über-heavy acts, but their shortened, ballad-free set eventually won over the head-banging German crowd and was a huge success. I don't think that Foreigner were completely out of place either, considering that other bands on the bill included Whitesnake, Y&T, and Rik Emmett (Triumph), whom I would consider more rock than metal. Foreigner were only given a one hour set to work with this night, and considering the name of the festival, they wisely shelved their mega-hit ballads like "Waiting For A Girl Like You" and "I Wanna Know What Love Is" and stuck with only the heavier hits from their first four albums. It was still bright and sunny out when the band hit the stage, but that did not detract from the show at all. With the familiar Foreigner logo draping the back of the stage, the band kicked off the set with "Double Vision" and I was immediately impressed with how good these guys sounded live. Most importantly, a reconstituted Foreigner could not be taken seriously without a vocalist who could do justice to the extraordinary vocal talents that Lou Gramm brought to the mix. According to Mick Jones, towards the end of about six months of auditioning numerous vocalist and listening to hundreds of tapes, he finally received a tape from the former lead singer of the 80's glam-metal band Hurricane, Kelly Hansen, belting out a few Foreigner classics, and he was completely blown away. Rightly so! Hansen is not only a great vocalist, who is able to sing in the same style as Gramm, but he is also a charismatic stage presence who infuses just the right amount of his own personality into the songs to make them his own. He reminds me a little bit of a young Steven Tyler. "Head Games" and "Dirty White Boy" are delivered next and you can see the crowd slowly being won over. Since most of these songs were such monster radio hits, you will want to hear them played mostly true to form, but the band takes many improvisational liberties that only make them better. This is none more true than with the next song, "Cold As Ice", which features some dazzling harmony vocals involving all of the band members, as well as a cool bluesy breakdown where Jeff Jacobs gets to strut his stuff on the organ and synthesizer. By the time the Foreigner 4 classics "Urgent" and "Juke Box Hero" are trotted out to close out the set, the crowd are all on their feet, with fists pumping, and heavy metal salutes flying. Multi-instrumentalist Tom Gimbel handles the sax solo on "Urgent" and blows it out of the park. As commented on during the interview feature, they knew they had won over this metal crowd when Gimbel was out at the front of the stage blowing his sax solo, and the entire crowd where pumping their fists in praise. "Juke Box Hero" was preceded by a cool Middle Eastern sounding percussion jam which led right into the famous opening synthesizer riff, and was later infused by a short "Whole Lotta Love" jam. This was easily the most powerful performance of the night for me. After briefly leaving the stage for a few minutes the band had to hurry back for their encore performance of "Hot Blooded", which capped off an incredible one hour set. They really need to put out another video of one of their headlining club gigs, featuring a nice two-hour long set, while this great lineup is still going strong. My only complaint with the production of this DVD is with the audio mixes. Although DTS 5.1 surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, and Dolby Digital stereo tracks are all provided, they each suffer from the same problem, and that is a thin sounding mix, with the guitars (of all things) much too low in the mix. Essentially, the vocals and the drums were mixed very loud, the keyboards were okay, but the guitars and bass were seriously neglected. Many of you may not find this as problematic as I did, but being the guitar freak that I am, these things stand out like a sore thumb. The picture actually looked very good, considering that it was shot outside in the bright sunlight, and although the camera work was a little herky-jerky at times, it really captured the experience of being in the front row at the show. What more could you ask for? Special features consisted of interviews with Mick Jones, Kelly Hansen, and Jason Bonham, as well as a short fan feature called Foreigner TV. Alive & Rockin' does what a good concert DVD should do. Before seeing this video I couldn't have cared less that Foreigner were playing my town. Now, I am actively seeking them out. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - October 2007 |
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Running Time: 64 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - October 2007 |