Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Back-to-Back: Mark Farner and Lou Gramm



Where else can you find a music treat at a very nominal fee and watch two dynamic performers do their thing on stage in this day and age of high gas prices and atrocious high- tech gadgets?

Once again the annual Meijer-sponsored Taylor Summerfest did not disappoint when they brought Mark Farner of the seminal American rock band, Grand Funk Railroad, and Lou Gramm, the erstwhile lead singer of the rock band Foreigner, to the 2006 edition.

Two veteran rockers with contrasting singing and performing style wowed the audience who braved the afternoon sun and captivated them enough to watch and listen to their kind of music as they shared their vintage and classic hits to us, people who braved the heat for some afternoon delight and then some into the night--

The songs still ring like they did when I first heard them eons ago, that same sound that I am so familiar with, just like the sound from the old vinyl records that I had in my collections when I was growing up in the Philippines.

My cache of old records back home, from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin to Deep Purple to UFO to Rainbow to Black Sabbath, just to name a few, where it used to dominate the Radiowealth turntable in my younger years, that was both a source of consternation and amusement by my Gran’ Ma on the kind of music her “favorite” Grandson was hooked into.

But my taste in music is not confined to one particular genre for I enjoy and appreciate any product of artistic expression, and it also depends on what kind of mood I am at in a particular moment.

Anyway, the songs are as timeless as ever as nostalgia and appreciation quietly swept into the well- diversified crowd of “leather- clad bikers,” “baby boomers,” “thirty- some things“, “curious teens” and “old hags” that brought them together for several hours of musical extravaganza; the old revelers reminiscin’ about the good old days when rock music was pure and not yet corrupted by crash commercialism that is the hallmarks of rock groups nowadays while the young ones were introduced into a world that is so alien to them, rock and roll at its best, the way they were played before, where the guitars and drums are raw and unadulterated.



Mark Farner is the prolific songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of the power trio that is the Grand Funk Railroad who in their heyday had amassed quite an amount of jewelry in the music business (12 platinum albums/ 15 gold albums) and became one of America’s biggest bands in the 1970s as exemplified by the fact that when they performed in the Big Apple in 1971, they broke the attendance record for a concert at New York City's Shea Stadium and eclipsed the record set by the Fab Four no less in 1966, a record that still stands to this very day.

Mark Farner is a rock and roll legend no doubt, flamboyant and energetic, he held the audience captive till the end of his set with his superb guitar playing and brought us back in time with classic renditions of “We’re an American Band,” "Heartbreaker," "Some Kind Of Wonderful," I'm Your Captain (Closer To Home)," "Foot-Stompin' Music," "the Loco-motion", "Bad Time", "Mean Mistreater", and other hits from his days with GFR and also his solo career.

He is a class act when it comes to performing live.








Lou Gramm, on the other hand, who, together with Mick Jones, catapulted the rock group Foreigner to the top of the charts with his trademark powerful vocals but with a soft touch on the side.

Who can forget the rock ballad "Waiting For A Girl Like You", which spent ten weeks at 1981 at No. 2 in the American Singles Charts, and the vocally challenging "I Want to Know What Love Is", which was a worldwide number one hit in 1984 that cemented their stature as one of the biggest rock groups of the late 70’s to early 80’s?

But just like any musical group, Foreigner succumbed to that age- old curse of successful music groups when fame gobbled up their musical sense and the inevitable happened---

When Mr. Gramm and Mr. Jones clashed over musical ideas, the band’s direction and petty matters, they quietly disbanded and although they would reunite every now and then for a gig or two, the group and their music as well as their relationship with each other would never be the same again. Lou Gramm for his part, continued to do solo projects and tour with his band in the summer.

Lou Gramm who was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1997 and subsequently went under the knife to remove it; complications of surgery affected his voice and weakened his stamina, which was quite evident in the concert. He struggled with the high notes and at times seemed to stammer on the lyrics, but the audience did not mind these small asterisks in his performance for his drive and spirit were in full throttle.

He sang with so much power and gusto that the people showed their appreciation by singing along with him all the way-- from the opening song, “Double Vision” to “Dirty” to “Long, Long Way Home” to “Cold as Ice.”

The classic “Waiting for a Girl like You” made the audience quiet for awhile and just listened to his soothing voice float in the evening breeze.

Then he brought them back to their feet with a succession of classic songs like “Ready or Not,” “Rev on the Red Line,” “Head Games,” “Midnight Blue,” “Dirty White Boy” and “Jukebox Hero.”

“Hot Blooded” was the last song in his repertoire and a fitting one to end the hot and balmy summer night where music fans were treated to an extraordinary evening of classic rock and roll from two extraordinary performers.





*07/2006

Saturday, November 18, 2006

The Best of Times


July 9, 2005 at the Heritage Park in Taylor, Michigan, USA, a crowd of more than 10, 000 people watched, screamed, sang and listened to the good old rock music of the still alive and rockin’ 70’s Super group named after the river in Hades, the Greek Underworld inhabited by the souls of the dead - STYX, as they rocked the 2005 Meijer Taylor Michigan Summer Fest!

The first cassette tape that I bought was the band’s Caught in the Act Live album back when I was in first year high school in 1983. So, when I saw the poster that STYX will be performing at the annual Meijer- sponsored Summer Fest literally for a song, I decided to grab the chance to watch them in person and did not regret it. The songs and sound remain the same albeit the singers and players were older and grayer.

STYX minus original front man Dennis de Young started the show with their traditional opening song, “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)” by Lead Vocalist Tommy Shaw to the delight of the screaming audience. His voice hasn’t change much since he first burst into the scene eons ago for the band.

When the STYX Godfather James “JY” Young took the microphone and sang the opening lines of Snowblind--

“Mirror, mirror…“ the roars and screams went to a crescendo!

And with its unmistakable guitar riffs, he showed us why he is one of the best rock guitarists of all time.

Tommy Shaw then shared the story behind the haunting rock ballad “Crystal Ball“, the song that he composed in a bowling alley in Chicago while waiting for the call from STYX after he auditioned for them that would become the title of the first album on which he was featured as a new member of the group.

The new lead vocalist, Lawrence Gowan, although he can never equal the trademark voice of Kilroy, the erstwhile STYX Vocalist, he definitely can stand on his own merit and boy he can hit those notes not to mention the fact that he is a better piano player than his predecessor. He can play the piano with his hands behind his back putting to good use his degree in Classical Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Toronto.

Todd Sucherman can bang the drums better than any other and he is certainly one of the best drummers around that can do justice to the playing of the band’s original drummer, the terribly missed and departed John Panozzo, while journeyman Ricky Philips formerly of Bad English (When I See You Smile fame) is a great addition to the band with his energetic Bass guitar playing prowess and he surely found a home with STYX even though original bassist and the band’s co -founder, Chuck Panozzo, who was stricken with HIV and Prostate Cancer would sometimes join them every now and then in some of their gigs and concert tours.

The band sang many of their rock classics made famous in their Paradise Theater years like Rockin’ the Paradise, Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man), Suite Madam Blue, Too Much Time on my Hands, Come Sail Away, Captain America and of course, Miss America!

They also performed an 18- song medley of their blasts from the past and several cuts from their latest album, Big Bang Theory, their cover versions of several classic rock songs like the Beatles‘ I am the Walrus, Jimi Hendrix’s Manic Depression, and Steve Marriot’s I Don’t Need No Doctor, just to name a few.

The band played with so much energy and gusto! The concert lasted more than two and a half hours of pure rock and roll and the fans could never ask for more. We all went home with good memories of STYX and their music.



*Posted in Lagalag- C2005

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