The title may be a bit confusing, so I’d like to clear up any of that. La Musique room is in Saint Michaels Minnesota. It’s one of the rooms in a large movie theater building. They’ve converted one of the theaters into a live performance venue. They like to say it’s the world’s smallest stadium. they use it from fall until spring for life performances. All during the time when you could also go and see the latest films released in the theater in a comfortable and relaxing setting. But in the summer, they book bands into what they call Summerfield. It’s adjacent to the actual building and is an outdoor concert Event Center. The staff is super friendly, the sightlines are great and it’s a wonderful place to go see music outside on a beautiful summer night. I highly recommend if you’re anywhere in the Twin Cities area, it’s just a short drive-up Interstate 94.
That night I was treated to a brand-new band called Hawk. it’s a group of local musicians who put together with this fantastic cover band. They played everything acoustically and it worked so well. It’s the perfect band for a summer evening as an opening act. You could just sit on the lawn and listen to all these songs that you know that they presented in a different way acoustically. It wasn’t just a Bon Jovi song like wanted dead or alive, they were pulling out songs from Vandenberg and other one hit wonders along with some classic 70’s music. It features four members, Chris Hawkey who has his own band and is a radio personality on Kfan weekdays. Greg Armstrong the leader of the band and from the Fabulous Armadillos, Mark Westlund who plays with Them Pesky Kids. And rounding out the quartet, Matt Kirkwold. All four of these gentlemen are amazing musicians and have really put together something special. They did one rehearsal and performed for everybody that evening.
Headliners Night Ranger are like the fine wine of rock and roll. They seem to age extremely well and keep getting better over time. I’ve been seeing this band since 1983 or so and every concert I’ve ever seen them perform has been wonderful. Very much like Cheap Trick in that they’re just consistent as hell. No matter where they’re playing, they seem to be happy to be there and enjoying themselves. They have had a few lineup changes since their inception but what band hasn’t?
The two songs they performed that had the largest impact on me that evening was an amazing version of their song “Night Ranger” off their first album and the song off of their Seven Wishes album “Goodbye”. I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard them play either one of those songs. Perhaps for some of you who are huge Night Ranger fans that see them many times a year, these are more common. But to me they were the highlights of the evening. They are currently promoting the latest record they’ve released A.T.B.P.O. which is short for, and the band played on. They played one song off that record titled, ”Breakout”. It was very well received by the audience and fit perfectly into their set along with all their classic songs.
It’s interesting how some evenings like this night in particular Jack Blades who does most of the talking to the audience was very chatty. He was telling a story about when they first got started introducing the song “Night Ranger” that they originally called themselves Ranger. But there was already another group in LA called The Rangers who were going to sue them for using the name. They decided to add the word night at the beginning to solve the problem. He then asked the crowd, “did we get it right?”. And of course, everybody cheered but I’m going to argue the point that they didn’t get it right. I’ve never understood why the band was called Night Ranger when there are five of them. Shouldn’t it be The Night Rangers? In the same way it’s The Temptations, not Temptations because there’s more than one guy. For those of you reading this and think I’m an idiot. You probably have a point but stop for just a moment and consider what I’m presenting. I know this is more bar room talk and it’s meant to be funny. But at the same time, they will and always will be The Night Rangers to me.
Beyond all that silliness, Night Ranger is a true musical treasure of pure, straight forward rock and roll. They are the kind of band you could bring someone to see that has never heard any of their music and would have a great time. How can you not be a fan of Night Ranger? I for one am so happy that they are out there playing consistently. I will go to see them whenever I get the opportunity and always excited to see them on my concert schedule. I highly recommend you give them a try as well.
