Tollwood
the second....
... and it is exactly 2 years ago, that Foreigner played the
same place here in Munich - The tollwood Music tend. Doing
a little review and some comparing, I discover some things,
which let me become a bit suspicious. But let's get to that one
later.....
For me it's the second time after the Simple Minds here,
and I arrive shortly before 8 p.m. at the venue. I miss the
supportact again, sorry about that, but doing such a huge amount
of events every year (120 - 150) I just have to shorten some
things a bit, otherwise it get's too much. Don't get me wrong.
This has nothing to do with ignorance on a new or unkown act. So
please forgive me... It won't get a bad habit, promise.
Within the live review 2 years ago, I took already a review to
the Bandhistory, splitting with original singer Lou Gramm and
the new era. But while the new band did a great job last time,
this time it's definately not their best appearance tonight. And
again I think about the slogan:
"it is, what it is, but it ain't, what it used to be"
according to Johnny Cash.
Well, let's face it, Foreigner have lost some feathers...as we
say so, although their are almost 5.000 people here tonight,
which means - almost sold out.
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But not even
5 minutes show time have passed, when I realize, something is
just not right here... starting off with the absolut disastrious
acoustical circumstances. I really wanna know, what kind of
nutcase they got at the sound desk in the back. Fortunately many
people are so enthusiastic about the old smashsongs, dancing and
jumping around, that they don't really notice this weak sound
and the obvious lack of conditions in the band. So what? The
myths lives in the songs, because from the original band, there
is anyway only Mick Jones left. And I think, you can even make
this out from a distance. Looking very trendy with his spiky
platinblonde haircut (at least what's left up there on his head)
and an outfit, that teenages aged 17 would get jealous about it.
Third springtime we call this...
Apart from that, Lou Gramm substitute Kelly Hanson seems to have
some problems with his voice tonight.
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And during the
first 3 songs, while we photographers do our work in the pit,
Hanson leaves his sunglasses on. And I guess, that's not only,
because it's looking cool. As soon as we are gonne, he takes of
the spectacles and never puts them on again during the rest of
the show.
The drummer has changed as well. It's not anymore Jason Bonham
behind the drumkit, but Brian Tichy, who also is with Billy
Idol.
Bassist Jeff Pilson get's introduced as the bass player of
Dokken. Whereby I bet my last shirt, that not even half of the
audiance even knows, who Dokken was, or better still is. Pilson
shows a hell of a lot longing for self promoting his person. To
complete the band, there is Tom Gimbel on rhythm guitar and Sax,
and Michael Bluestein on Piano/keyboard.
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Our Sigi in
Action - always busy to catch the best Shot.... 
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But
somehow the other's vanish in the shade of Mick Jones and Kelly
Hanson. And like I mentioned before, the singer somehow seems
not to feel well at all. It's not so much what's up to his body
movements, but more or less his voice. .
But now we come to the clue of the whole concert. I took
comparision to the setlist from 2007 and the one from today.
.
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someone
took the piss out of this list, as translating
the song titles into bavarian...
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...and
do you realize something? If you read, you see, that it's almost
the exact same program than 2 years ago. Even the order of the
songs are almost the same. Only difference is the crossed
through song on tonight's list and a 'Too Lage' in addtion. What
do you think about that. I mean, Foreigner have quite a few more
songs in their backcatalogue these these here. But maybe
A) 'till this very day, no brandnew piece of music has been
released so far. B) the current line up or maybe just the singe,
can only perform these songs and none other's, as they have
never been practiced. Or C). Lou Gramm has still some rights on
some songs... We'll never know. But Foreigner thinks we
Germans eat this anyway,as we are not aware of anything. ‚Cold As Ice’, ‚Head Games’, ‚Urgent’
and
Jukebox Hero’ and we don't need more to rock along, drunk or
not drunk. The band didn't even take the effort to change at
least the order of the songs on the list. And I'm pretty sure,
they play the same list, since 2007 or even earlier. . Sorry
friends, but this seems to me like a cheap partyband, doing
their odd job to receive their money and head to the next one.
Yeah well, I take back the word 'cheap'. Because that's what
they are definately not.
But not only the songs, it's also the show, which seems to be
always the exact same. Mr. Hanson does his usual hike up toward
the Mount Everest, every time... and at least he leaves some
impression by the audiance.
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Mick Jones shows obviously, who is the most important guy on
stage, and Pilson goes wild as much as he can, to give the whole
appearance a rather wild image.
However, in 2007 I thought the show was pretty well done. But
today I have a sort of bad taste due to all these negative
circumstances, which is, to repeat myself: bad sound conditions,
a weak voice, and some wrong tunes inbetween. And I say this
even taking the risk, that some of the crowd never would have
recognized all these things due to heavy hot bloode rockin'.
Oh, before I forget, 2 of the 3 encore songs have simply been
dropped by the band. But as stupid as we music lovers are - we
don't realize that either...do we?:- (
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And over all,
in my opinion, never mind, how good or bad this band is... It
hasn't got much to do with Foreigner like it used to be.
So well, let's keep on touring in Germany, because that's the
mekka where the rubel still rolls....
And let's wait and see, what
Lou
Gramm offers us,when he will be over here in
October for some live dates.
http://www.foreigneronline.com/ |
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