LIVE REVIEW: Foreigner - Perth, October 16th 2018

The best live shows should be experiences you will never forget – from seeing big names in intimate venues to seeing the bands you love try something new and giving you a whole new twist on their work. I know that the ‘band and orchestra’ has been done to death over the last few decades but sometimes when you catch a band that does it right it still manages to take your breath away. There are few bands whose music suits this treatment as well as Foreigner as anyone who has seen their recent DVD will attest. But seeing them up on stage in a relatively intimate venue like Perth’s Riverside Theatre is something very special indeed.

The show tonight opens with an ‘Overture’ containing snatches from the band’s catalogue, by the assembled orchestra before the band take to the stage for ‘Blue Morning, Blue Day’ a song which is greeted by huge applause from the packed crowd at Perth’s Riverside Theatre. It’s a great song to start and one that immediately puts you at ease, acoustically it sounds great and the mix of band an orchestra is beautifully balanced.

The Riverside theatre is a venue which rivals only the Perth Concert Hall for acoustic clarity, but as Kelly Hansen recognizes early on the crowd is so close to the action it brings with it some extra dynamics that even the Concert Hal can’ offer. We’re not hear to wait to cut to the chase though as the huge hits ‘Cold As Ice’ and the luscious ‘Waiting for a Girl Like You’ elevate the crowd to a level of appreciation normally reserved for encores!

One thing is clear tonight after 40 years of performing the band have amassed a back catalogue that could keep an audience on the edge of their seats for probably half a dozen concerts so the wonderful ‘That Was Yesterday ‘and the flute intro to what to me was one of the real highlights ‘Say You Will’ with it’s acoustic slant and audience participation and the whole band front of stage, is just breathtaking.

After that Mick recalls a story about the film ‘Still Crazy’ (a wonderful film if you get a chance and haven’t seen it ) and we won’t spoil that anecdote for you let’s just say he works well under pressure as the band launch into the theme song which won him an Ivor Novello – ‘The Flame Still Burns’ which is again treated acoustically with a lovely staccato lead violin intro that really compliments it.

Behind the band I count 10 violin, a Cello to compliment the one on stage, a 5-strong brass section and percussion, there’s also what might be a french horn and a hefty double bass on stage, though I may well be wrong,I may well be able to name the make and model of Mick’s guitars and Jeff’s basses but I’m far less than familiar with these more respectable instruments!

An orchestral interlude launches us into the big electric rocker ‘Double Vision’ and after the obligatory and well received band intros as we set up for the next section of the night Kelly raps about the possibility that some of the assembled masses may actually be over 40 years of age “Dig down for those memories and find that 20 year old rock an roller!” It’s a sentiment I imagine that most of us can relate to. And there’s more from Mr Hansen over the course of the night but we won’t spoil it.

We travel back 41 years to very first song next and ‘Feels Like the First Time’ raises more than a few of the crowd to their feet and the crowd at the front of the stage of dancers grows. It’s a song that is largely band led but the orchestra comes in beautifully for the rousing chorus to give it a richness and a depth that along with the dancing and the clapping raises everything just that little more.

‘Fool for you Anyway’ that follows gets a soul arrangement with the Horn section front and centre and it works beautifully and allows Kelly to show another side of his vocal before we stomp into ‘Dirty White Boy’ a very different type of song but one which works just as well with the brass. And here comes my only niggle of the night, in a crowd that is wonderfully here to watch the show, there’s only sparing camera-phone usage, and I don’t mind dancing down the front, but if you want to skip right to the front of the stage from seven rows back do it to enjoy the moment not to film the thing on your bloody huge i-pad!

Just when you think it can’t possibly get better than this Mick alone starts soloing to open ‘Urgent’ which gets everyone up on their feet before a, dare I say it, cello solo! (a first for me) opens what ends up being an epic rendition of ‘Jukebox Hero’ that stretches well past nine minutes and just may be one of the best treatments of a rock song I’ve heard in years. It ends with triple guitars right at the edge of the stage and finally Mick just soloing again. It’s wonderful. And I’m sure the whole room is left with that thought as the band leave the stage.

“Want some more music? Kelly ass as he returns “Well then you gotta make some more noise” the band and orchestra then proceed to lay down a huge groove as Kelly regales us with his thoughts on love which of course builds the anticipation for the penultimate song ‘I Want to know what love is’ which has us all on our feet hugging our neighbours as directed. Love is clearly in the room as the coir takes to the stage to hammer that point home. It’s a great song and a great sentiment.

And to close the orchestra leaves the stage to give us just the band for closer ‘Hot Blooded’ which rocks the room and leaves you wondering when they’ll be back. It’s a magical night with an amazing band and something you really can’t afford to miss.

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