Photos by Micah Gummel
Review by Micah Gummel
Venue: Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
Show photos: HERE
Meet the band:
Stephen McGrath on bass
Jeremy Colson on drums
Billy Morrison on rhythm guitar,
Derek Sherinian on keyboards
Steve Stevens is on lead guitar
What a night! Who else can sell out the Casino Ballroom when it is 90f out? You may say what’s the big deal about 90f outside? Well the historic Casino Ballroom was built before AC. So pack 2000 + people in it and the temp goes up to what feels like 110f fast! What a crowd aging form 15 – 60 and mostly female from what I could see. With that said, all you single guys check out the TOUR SCHEDULE now!
With true larger-than-life rock fashion, Idol’s back up band taking the darkened stage, while Idol was backstage with his wireless mic working as his own hype man. Idol started off with the classic Generation X songs, “Ready, Steady, Go” the leading in to “Dancing With Myself.” The band was full of energy and feeding off the crowd and the audience was giving it back many times over. With just three songs in a pair of thongs comes flying up on stage. At that I already knew that this was going to be a killer show.
Billy himself was in proper form. He still maintains that punk tough guy attitude that his stage persona has always been. He kept his fists pumping, and his facial expressions generally moved between his signature grin, scream, and that tough-pout that only Billy Idol can do. His voice was also in true Idol form, he can still alternate between his smooth drone and his signature scream at a moment’s notice.
The other star of the show as always is the one and only Steve Stevens, Idol’s lead guitarist for many years. The Steve can run the fret board well, even as he commonly opts to play acoustic instead of electric, even in acoustic mode his sound and style can make that acoustic have enough heavy metal thunder to make you forget that he was picking the notes on an acoustic guitar. Later in the show Stevens was given opportunity to show of his skills, and pulled a good 8 minutes of pure raw acoustic!! The audience ate it up!
The main set closed “Rebel Yell,” which, as expected, got the crowd pumping their fists in unison, the band managed to flesh the song out by an extra 2-3 minutes, but without sounding like a jam band. They were merely feeding the audience’s desire for the song to never end.
For the encore Idol and came back out and played “White Wedding” They closed the show with a fun take on Idol’s second big single, “Mony Mony,” and the crowd remained dancing, and despite eager pleas for a second encore, but we were left simply with the joy of experiencing an evening with one of the greatest performers in musical history.
Setlist
Ready Steady Go
(Generation X song)
Dancing with Myself
(Generation X song)
Pumping on Steel
Flesh for Fantasy
Postcards From The Past
Love and Glory (new song)
(Do Not) Stand in the Shadows
Ghost In My Guitar (new song)
Sweet 16
Eyes Without a Face
LA Woman
(The Doors cover)
Steve Stevens Guitar Solo
King Rocker
(Generation X song)
Love Like Fire
Blue Highway
Rebel Yell
Encore:
White Wedding
Mony Mony
(Tommy James & the Shondells cover)