Last Friday I saw Lou Gramm. Although it was advertised as Lou Gramm, the backgrop he used called it Lou Gramm All Stars. But lets be real, not sure there were any true all stars in his backing band, everyone was there to see and hear the original voice of Foreigner.
Got a ticket at the box office before the show to save like $15 in livenation fees. Decent attendance, not sold out, but not empty although my back balcony area was pretty empty. The lady at the box office seemed confused when I specificall said I'll take the row with no one in it
It was just Lou, so the show starts at 8:15 with a quick introduction and history video before he came out and they performed Feels Like THe First Time. I thought he sounded pretty good. Like I didn't realize he still would sound so young, especially considering he looks so old and fragile. I understand he had a brain tumor removed over 20 years ago and that lead to him physically not looking so great. But all that didn't matter once he started singing. He wasn't perfect and definitely showed his age throughout the evening, but generally, his voice held up and just sounded like the original voice of Foreigner. I think Kelly does a great job fronting Foreigner these days, but Lou still has it in his voice.
No surprise the set was almost exlcusively Foreigner hits. He did also play two of his solo songs and would occassionally give some history of the song about to come up next. One moment really stuck out, when he had a forgoteful moment talking about the upcoming song, and said "this song I wrote with...." and just drew a blank and an uhh and finally a "somebody"
It was kind of a funny moment but also kind of an old man struggling to remember moment which in the same breathe is not funny, but kind of sad. The keyboardist told him the name and he said it and went on with the song. You can find that at 10:40 in my video.
Now the bad.... the All Stars! I thought his backing band was just OK. The guitarist was fine and the live saxophone was great, and needed, but the drums were BAD. Turns out it's Lou's brother on drums. He was just off timed a bunch of times and his playing generally just felt off. Also, Lou would bang on a cowbell during a bunch of songs and it was also BAD. Like I don't mind the cowbell use in general, but when Lou would bang on it, not only would his bangs inconsistent, his timing was also off at times. it just stood out like a sore thumb. I think I even laughed at one point where I kept thinking to myself "Please put down the cowbell!"
The crowd was pretty tame. Sat the entire time and even at the end, didn't really wake up. I thought Urgent was probably the highlight of the set with the sax player going into the crowd. Also the ballads were really good. After the show, Lou did a meet and greet with purchase at his merch stand. He walked right past me as he made his way to the merch table and even waved at me when I yelled "Lou!".
Funny how after this show it was just announced today that Bret Michaels is performing this summer locally with also Lou Gramm as a special guest. I guess I may see him again this year. It seems like it would be a great idea to have Lou perform with Foreigner again though, he can still sing.
Lou Gramm All Stars LIVE @ Count Basie Theater Red Bank NJ 2/9/2024Next up:
February 16th - 311 @ Ovation Hall, Atlantic City NJ
Topic: Concerts for 2024 (Read 8562 times)
