Boston and Night Ranger Concert Review
July 20, Cedar Park Center
Night Ranger and Boston brought their tour into the Austin area at a medium-sized hockey arena known as Cedar Park Center. It’s perfect for crowds between 4-8,000 and thus fills a great need in a market like Austin. This tour filled a great need for older rockers wanting to relive the excitement and melody of the ’80s (with the pop metal of Night Ranger) and the supersonic space rock of the ’70s with Boston. The folks that attended had high hopes, but the great thing about veteran acts like these is they are way too professional not to deliver the goods.
Night Ranger came on at 7:30 and started tearing into “Touch of Madness,” which perfectly showcased the shred-ability of guitarists Joel Hoekstra and Brad Gillis. They traded licks and harmonized with each other at high speed and with precise notes. Without much fanfare, they jumped into “Sing Me Away,” where frontman Jack Blades surrendered the lead vocal duties to drummer Kelly Keagy. It was their first megahit of the evening and the crowd jumped right in with fairly loud BGVs. The first of many feel-good moments for their 50-minute set.
The band, which includes only one-fourth of Damn Yankees, included two of their tunes in an 11-song set (“Coming of Age” and “High Enough”), which pulled more high-volume BGVs out of the audience. The band carried a high energy level throughout all the tunes and built their momentum to a high point they wouldn’t let go of, coming out of “High Enough” and into the melodic “When You Close Your Eyes” and then the high energy rocker, “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me.” The band segued into an inspirational nod to the ’70s megaband Deep Purple, with “Highway Star.”
Jack Blades commented that this kind of music is “what they listened to when we were young.” I think he even referenced Boston, too, which might’ve been seen as a dig about old age – if there had been any young people in the audience. It was by a large a 40 and over crowd and it was only the start of a great night.
The band left the stage alone to just the keyboardist and drummer, who strode upon the stage with a wireless mic to start the song “Sister Christian.” After the soft intro, the rest of the band came onstage to finish it with power. For a finale, the band romped through “(You Can Still) Rock in America,” which left a nice aftertaste to a well-played and enjoyable set. Jack Blades had bragged about how much the band loved Austin and how they were really excited that their opening slot was over early enough to hit the town and hear some live music. Judging by the way he ran leaping off the stage to the side, Blades probably wasn’t kidding.
There was a long break before Boston took the stage, but they rolled into three straight hits that immediately raised the bar to ecstacy mode for every person that’d come to see Boston. “Rock & Roll Band” was a fitting intro, which showed off the impeccable guitar tone and pristine sound that trademarked Boston. The new lead singer, Tommy DeCarlo (aka the “Home Depot guy”) hit all the right notes — high and mid-tempo.
“Smokin'” and “Feelin’ Satisfied” guaranteed that the audience would get their money’s worth. Even though they were known for being able to reproduce their album’s sonics in a live setting, upteen years later instill a fair amount of doubt and uncertainty for the average concert-goer. Boston still has it.
Tom Scholz asked the audience if they thought an older band like Boston should still be making records, which sounded like a biased reaction to a smarmy rock critic or something, but the crowd enthusiastically responded with applause and favor, which allowed the band to roll out a brand new song, called “Life, Love & Hope.” It sounded good. A future classic? Maybe not, but a solid melodic rock song. “Cool the Engines” was next, which spread the set-list past the Third Stage album). Kimberley Dahme, who did a dandy job playing rhythm guitar on stage right throughout the night, took over lead vocals for “Surrender to Me.”
“Don’t Look Back” raised the bar high again, which vocally sounded great. The softer “Something About You” came next, recalling the soft melodies and light to hard dynamics the band is so good at. Boston was truly a progressive rock band, though they broke so far into the mainstream that they’re not often listed as the prog rock masters they are.
I should mention the large three spacechip-looking windows that acted as giant video screens behind the stage. From video game footage of flying over curved landscapes to star fields from outer space to city streets and breath-taking canyons, rivers and mountains. It was split into the three screens and carried the music along with energetic and beautiful visuals.
Tom Scholz, who sported a sleeveless black t-shirt that made him casually one of the audience members (and a spitting image of George Thorogood), dedicated the next two songs to “anyone named Amanda or Maryann,” and the crowd, of course, knew exactly what two songs would follow (“Amanda,” spaced apart by “The Launch” from the band’s mega-hit, “More Than a Feeling”) and the concert had peaked. We all knew a few more songs were in order, but the big payoff had come. This is a pretty good feeling, because the band’s catalog had a few more gems to spare.
Scholz played a nice long guitar solo intro to “A New World” and the band tore through “To Be A Man” and they introduced Siobhan Magnus from American Idol, who sang lead vocals for “Walk On.” It was impressive to hear the talent show star nail those vocals. Tracy Ferrie, who longtime HM Magazine readers will know (played in Seraiah, Whitecross and Stryper), was quite the showman, utilizing the full breadth of the stage to his advantage. It was great to see him performing on such a big stage (literally and figuratively).
And then the band took the audience (at least this reviewer) and pushed us off the cliff of joy with the long and winding song intro called “Foreplay,” that tripped right into “Long Time.” It was like musical paradise. Walking out of the crowded venue into the warm night air left lots of great new memories to swim around in between our ears.
Review and photos by Doug Van Pelt.
(click on photos to see a larger version).
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