(editor’s note – This date was originally scheduled for Harry Chapin, who canceled. Foreigner was originally scheduled for August 1, but moved to this date.)
Foreigner serves up unimaginative rock at Spa
by Steve Webb, The Knickerbocker News, August 21, 1979
The way I figure it, Foreigner has two specific types of fans, with a lot of cross-breeding in between.
First. there’s a primal live hard rock get-out-and-dance concert-goer, who has both Foreigner albums and turns up WTRY every time “Hot Blooded” comes on the air.
Second, there’s a progressive rockphile who listened to some of these guys in other bands and felt a melodic and rhythmic promise in the first Foreigner album.
The first group seemed to outnumber the second Monday night at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, where 16,906 attended the band’s second concert in its summer-fall tour. These fans cheered and cheered during the band’s 1 1/2 hour set, which featured a good sampling from the coming album, “Head Games.”
Who can discount the other group, however, no matter how many platinum albums Mick Jones, Ian McDonald and company rack up? The progressive audience has certainly been sold short by the band, sold up the river more like.
Although about one-eighth of the show gave some indication that Foreigner’s diverse background includes such heavy bands as King Crimson and Spooky Tooth, for the most part it was a bombast affair, the lowest common denominator of unimaginative rock.
This isn’t some kind of bolshoi diatribe against hits. Groups should have hits, hard rock hits too. And live rock should be exciting on a physical level
The huge instrumental arsenal Foreigner wields, however, is grossly out of place on two-chord pieces such as “Seventeen,” which could have been the Stones’ “Shattered” with different lyrics. The level of sophistication in the group’s compositions has declined considerably among its new material.
This is hidden on some of the earlier material by some interesting riffs, played mostly in tandem, by Jones on guitar and Al Greenwood on synthesizer. The latter is very talented at using his various keyboards in a rock format, but the material makes him sound ridiculous.
The concert started with a couple of hits, “Long, Long Way from Home” and “Blue Morning Blue Day.” At this point, the band was well-blended and relatively exciting. The new material started with a four-chord piece called “I’ll Get Even with You,” and the concert hit one of two high points with a swelling rocker, “I Need You.”
The nadir came next, a ridiculous song about women that I understood was new. Vocalist Lou Gramm, who remained obnoxious throughout the show, has his own version of “Some Girls,” opining women are superficial with lines like “Women in airplanes/Women who play games … Women in magazines/Women in limousines … Women in a disco/Women who don’t want to know …“
“Cold as Ice” featured a nice blending of Jones on electric mini-grand piano and Greenwood’s synthesizer, and it was followed by another highlight, “Star Rider.” This piece featured McDonald, who is pretty much wasted in this band, playing a nice flute part and an eventual quartet featuring him, Jones on guitar, Greenwood, and drummer Dennis Elliott.
After a couple more numbers, the sound was cranked up past distortion level for the hits “Double Vision” and “Feels Like the First Time.” This is an insidious practice, and a further indication of artistic cheapness on the part of any band that does it.
The main part of the show ended after a little more than one hour. This means the first of two encores included an interminable jam, followed after a second break by the primal hit “Hot Blooded.*
Several members of Foreigner indicate obvious talent, and their following is enthusiastic enough that they could mix their mass appeal with some good progressive rock. Since they don’t, one must either judge them complacent or arrogant. The latter would mean that they have a very low opinion of their audience’s intelligence, ignoring – of course – the segment that bought some of the members’ records during dryer days.
The Post-Star, July 27, 1979
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