Line-up

Venue

Saint Augustine Amphitheatre

1340C A1A South, 32080, Saint Augustine, FL, US

www.staugamphitheatre.com/

Capacity: 4,092

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Additional details

Doors open: 19:30

Concert in your area for Rock and Folk & Blues.

Find out more about Rock.

Foreigner biography

Founded and led by British musician Mick Jones, Foreigner is a British-American rock band formed in 1976 in NYC, U.S. They have collectively sold over a stunning 80 million records worldwide.

Fifty percent British and fifty percent American, the original lineup was comprised of Mick Jones, Ian McDonald, drummer Dennis Elliot, singer Lou Gramm, keyboardist Al Greenwood and bassist Ed Gagliardi. They called themselves Trigger but changed to Foreigner because the musical alias Trigger was already taken by another group. The band was picked up by John Kalodner at Atlantic Records and after a year of recording and remixing the debut album, “Foreigner” was released in March 1977. The album is punctuated by classic Foreigner singles like “Feels Like the Very First Time,” “Cold as Ice,” and “Long, Long Way from Home.”

Propelled by the success of their first album, Foreigner’s sophomore album “Double Vision” followed in 1978 to rave reviews. Singles like “Waiting For a Girl Like You,” “Hot Blooded,” and “Juke Box Hero” received significant airplay. Foreigner’s timeless hits are the perfect additions to soundtracks in the film industry. Songs have been featured in Hollywood box office hits like “Anchorman 2,” “Magic Mike,” and “Pitch Perfect.” The single “Dirty White Boy” (from their third album “Head Games” in 1979) was introduced to modern audiences in the video game “Grand Theft Auto V.” The film industry and video game industry have helped Foreigner’s music stay relevant and have boosted sales via internet downloads.

On 13 June 2013 Mick Jones and Lou Gramm were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Mick Jones admits his vision for the band was to “combine Blues and R&B and make it sound soulful and authentic.” He cites influences from English music as well as American country music as inspiration for Foreigner’s unique sound. Foreigner has toured with rock bands like Journey and Styx.

Night Ranger biography

Night Ranger is a hard rock band from San Francisco, California, US that has achieved great success with their heavy hitting rock songs and their emotional power ballads.

Night Ranger formed in the early ‘80s and consisted of drummer/vocalist Kelly Keagy, bassist/vocalist Jack Blades, guitarists Brad Gillis and Jeff Watson, and keyboardist Alan Fitzgerald. The band was initially performing under the name, The Rangers, but changed their name to Night Ranger in 1982 due to a country band already having claimed the name The Rangers. By the end of 1982 the band had already signed a record deal with Boardwalk Records and released their debut album “Dawn Patrol”. The album was commercially successful, reaching the No. 38 position on the US Billboard 200. The album also contained the singles “Sing Me Away” and “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me”, which were also turned into music videos and received much airplay on MTV.

In 1983 the band switched over to MCA Records and released their second studio album “Midnight Madness”. The album reached the No. 15 position on the US Billboard 200 chart and gained Night Ranger a larger fan base. Instead of playing concerts as the opening act, Night Ranger was now playing headlining shows. The album contained three hit singles: “(You Can Still) Rock in America”, “Sister Christian”, and “When You Close Your Eyes”. The power ballad “Sister Christian” is one of the most popular songs that Night Ranger wrote, and it was ranked No. 32 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of the 1980s. The song reached the No. 5 position on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and has been featured in several films such as “Boogie Nights” and “Friday the 13th”.

In 1985 the band released the album “7 Wishes”, which contained the singles “Sentimental Street” and “This Boy Needs to Rock”. The album was a commercial success and was later certified platinum. The band was able to achieve commercial success over the radio because they were very similar to other popular hard rock bands, but they were also slightly cleaner than other bands like Motley Crue and Ratt. Night Ranger’s guitarists, Gillis and Watson, were also praised for their dueling guitar techniques and were constantly featured in guitar magazines.

During the years between 1984 and 1987 Night Ranger contributed songs to many film soundtracks. Their songs were featured in such movies as “Teachers”, Explorers”, “Sixteen Candles”, and “Out of Bounds”. They also provided the title theme for the film “The Secret of My Success”. The remaining years in the 80s showed Night Ranger releasing two more albums. “Big Life” was released in 1987 and “Man in Motion” was released in 1988. After “Man in Motion” was released the band briefly disbanded. During the time Night Ranger was broken up Jack Blades formed the band Damn Yankees with Ted Nugent and Tommy Shaw, and Jeff Watson pursued a solo career.

In 1996 the five original members reunited Night Ranger and later released the 1997 album “Neverland” and the 1998 album “Seven”. Although these albums weren’t significantly successful in the US, they were however very popular in Japan and garnered Night Ranger a large fan base in Asia. Later in their career, Alan Fitzgerald and Jeff Watson would leave Night Ranger once again and would be replaced by Eric Levy on keyboards and Keri Kelli on guitars. In 2007 Night Ranger released “Hole in the Sun”, which was their follow up to their 1998 album “Seven”. In 2014 they released the album “High Road”, which contained the single “Knock Knock Never Stop”.

Night Ranger has been pleasing fans with their headlining shows ever since they released “Midnight Madness”. They have toured all over the world and played gigs with many notable artists such as ZZ Top, Ozzy Osbourne, and Kansas.

Live reviews

Foreigner, Europe and FM. This was quite simply a stunning concert. Three fantastic groups featuring three amazing vocalists with voices that you'd happily trade a major bodily organ for, whether it be for rocking the house or simply for serenading the knickers off of that special lady in your life! First up was FM. Now it turns out that I've seen FM before as support for Thin Lizzy back in 2011 and although I don't remember it well, I do remember being impressed despite never having heard of them. Nowadays, I know them due to their hit 'Crosstown Train', which received well deserved and extensive plays on Planet Rock. FM are a band with a extensive catalogue of truly great rock songs. They've been going 30 odd years apparently, who knew? Vocalist Steve Overland is a very impressive front man with a superb voice and I will definitely be looking at lot closer at their back catalogue. Next up was Europe. Everybody but everybody, knows 'The Final Countdown'. Now I admit I've always thought of it and indeed Europe as trashy and throwaway euro pop, but put it on and there's not many who wouldn't know it and whether they admit to liking it or not, they normally sing along because poppy or not, it's a great song which I've grown pretty fond of! That said, when Joey Tempest and the boys want to get heavy, they get as heavy as you want. 'The Last Look At Eden' album was a superb showcase of just how good a group they can be and certainly turned me round in my thinking. Add to that the fact that Joey Tempest probably (if I'm honest, despite my love of Foreigner) stole the show! He gave an electric performance and absolutely had the audience in the palm of his hand. At one point, he recalled a boat trip from Sweden to Hammersmith as a 16 year old to see Thin Lizzy and inserted a few lines of 'The Cowboy Song' into the track 'Superstitious'. That was me won over straight away! Unfortunately, it was a short set and although we got to hear classics like 'Rock The Night and the banging 'No Stone Unturned', I was disappointed not to hear the truly excellent 'Catch That Plane' and 'Not Supposed To Sing The Blues'. They closed up with 'The Final Countdown' and the place went absolutely mental! I would happily go to see them as a headliner. Finally came Foreigner who opened up with 'Double Vision'. Strangely, there was no sign of founder member and lead guitarist Mick Jones but it transpires that he'd been unable to play on some of the other tour dates due to ill health. The band played three more songs being 'Head Games','Cold As Ice' and 'Waiting For A Girl Like You' before the appearance of Jones. The rest was almost shared by the whole audience who without much coaxing were happy to sing along word for word with the band and who were obviously having a great time. Kelly Hanson is, like his predecessor Lou Gramm, a great vocalist and fits perfectly into the role of Foreigners lead vocalist as he sounds so much like Gramm. Hanson also said they'd been touring and the one country he mentioned was Israel which I was delighted to hear. They entertained the rockers like me with songs like 'Urgent' and 'Cold as Ice' whilst catering also to the couples and ladies with their trademark ballads like 'Waiting For A Girl Like You' and the soulful 'I Wanna Know What Love Is' which they performed beautifully along with a school choir. If you've never seen Foreigner, big mistake because they are a superb band with something for just about everyone!

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martin-hizer

Lou Gramm sung and wrote ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’ when he was fronting the band Foreigner which pretty much gives him the right to do anything he wants. Luckily for us he has chosen to continue to play live and allow many more of us to witness his vocal talents in person.

His voice hasn’t lost any of the power and poise that it had when he was topping charts with Foreigner and he’s still one of those rare singers that could fill an arena with the sheer velocity of his vocals. He hasn’t lost any of his charisma over the years either. Although he may be in his 60s now, Lou still carries with him the look and feel of a true showman, working the stage with confidence and probably still delighting a lot of the female fans in his crowds.

Whether it’s rocking out to his old bands hits or delivering some of his potent new material, Lou never puts less than 100% into his performances which is why he will continue to draw big crowds even today.

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CATFROMJAPAN

Night Ranger, wow, well done! After 30 years of performance muddled in with various different band members coming and going and a lengthy hiatus, Night Ranger rocked the house last night and were better than ever. The first five albums sold over ten million copies world wide, but after their success plateaued, they disbanded. I was a little apprehensive that their reforming would leave them weaker, but the have compensated with this through their dedication to the music.
It was a massive throwback, and their energy and dedication to every note they were playing was infectious. The audience were singing and dancing along with such energy everyone was exhausted by the end of the set – but in the best way! If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t be able to tell that they weren’t the original band members, they worked together so closely and in perfect flawless harmony.
They closed with Rock in America, the track that everyone seemed to know all the words to and it was an epic climax to the evening. Although I had to shoot off almost straight away, the band members came out and it was great to see them chatting to the audience and taking photos – really friendly guys. I’ll definitely be going back if they tour again!

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