Photos by Micah Gummel
Review by Dale Jr.
Show photos HERE
If a guy tried to walk up to the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom’s box office on Saturday, “he couldn’t get a ticket. It was a sold out show.” That’s right, the Juke Box Heroes made their way to Hampton Beach and the crowd was packed in tightly to see the band. It was one hell of a warm day on the beach, so the crowd was definitely “Hot Blooded” by the time the band took the stage at 9. There is one thing that I feel obligated to mention, and that’s the fact that Mick Jones, the co-founder and the sole remaining original member of Foreigner, was not there for the show on Saturday. Apparently Jones only make sporadic appearances with the band after suffering from a heart attack and having open heart surgery early last year. In fact, just two weeks prior to the show, Jones reunited with former lead singer, Lou Gramm, as the two of them performed as they were being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
The crowd didn’t seem to notice and/or care about the absence of Jones as they were one their feet, dancing and cheering for most of the entire show. The band basically did a greatest hits set list, as they played all of the songs that you would expect them to play, as they opened the show with Double Vision, and rolled along with songs like Head Games, Cold As Ice, Dirty White Boy, Feels Like the First Time and more. The band is firm believers of music education staying in schools. So much so that students from the Winnacunnet High School choir went around selling Foreigner CDs, whose sales went to benefit the choir. They later joined the band on stage later to help sing “I Want To Know What Love Is”.
The whole band was amazing musically, and two of the performances that stood out to me were of singer Kelly Hansen, who joined the band in 2005, and former Dokken and Dio bassist, Jeff Pilson. Hansen hit all the notes the lead singer of Foreigner is required to hit and did one damn good fine job doing it, as those notes aren’t that easy to hit. Pilson, is an amazing talent; playing one hell of a bass guitar, and even playing the keys during the final encore, “Hot Blooded”. You could tell that the man gave it his all, as his flannel shirt was saturated with sweat by the end of the night. While Mick Jones was present on Saturday night, the rest of the band put on one hell of a fine show.