Night Ranger, Live at Riverfest

You know, I can’t believe that it’s actually been four years since I last saw Night Ranger, THE band, play live. I had seen both Jack Blades and Kelly Keagy playing at a 10th anniversary rock festival last Fall with the band Scrap Metal.

It was at another water related event, Bay City River Roar in Michigan back in 2004, although the circumstances are somewhat different this night. In Bay City, the city was bigger, the event was bigger, and the crowd (around 10,000) was bigger.

St. Clair is a small town and the stage is on a river barge. Since this is a main waterway between the US and Canada, there are a heck of a lot of big freight ships that come through and create significant wakes! The Tubes opened for Night Ranger and they were rocked themselves quite a bit!

The crowd this night had been sitting through some local acts and then The Tubes and Night Ranger headlined. I’d guess the crowd was around 3,000 once the band really got into their set, but pretty packed in and seemed to love it!

Opening with "This Boy Needs To Rock" from Seven Wishes, they really did rock and then they managed to bring in Deep Purple’s "Highway Star" midway through and then back into "This Boy Needs To Rock." Wow! What an opening!

They then took things down a bit for "Sing Me Away" from their first album, Dawn Patrol. These guys had a great sound from the crowd’s standpoint and their harmony vocals were awesome!

Jack Blades then took time out to talk to the crowd a bit. “So, we’re back in Michigan again! You know, I know Michigan alright, Ted (Nugent) and I used to be in a band together called Damn Yankees, anyone remember them? Well, here’s a song from them, see if you know it.”

They ripped into Coming Of Age, a great track by Damn Yankees, and the crowd loved it!

“OK,” says Jack, “we have a new album out, released about three weeks back, called Hole In The Sun and we’re gonna play you a song from there.”

They launch into “You’re Gonna Hear It From Me,” a great rocker! Yeah, I know it’s new, but their new album really rocks and people that were just looking for a greatest hits set tonight, well, aside from this track, they got it! Shame they couldn’t have played one or two more new songs, the album is great.

Oh, and what a dream to go into "Rumors In The Air" from the Midnight Madness album next. They are rockin’!

New members, fantastic talent on guitar / backing vocals, Joel Hoekstra and Christian Cullen on keyboards fit right in! I was actually thinking that the way Joel and original guitarist, Brad Gillis played harmony guitar solos off each other reminded me of Thin Lizzy back in the day.

Jack talks some more about how they were sitting around one day, enjoying life, thinking of writing new songs, when the phone rang and a voice said, "Hello, is this Night Ranger? This is Michael J. Fox and I want you to write a song for my new movie. It’s called Secret Of My Success." "So," says Jack, "we sat there and said, so, what shall we call the song? Hmmm, "Secret Of My Success" perhaps?" That they did, and we heard a rockin’ version of it here!

Jack is in talkative mood tonight for sure. He starts chatting next about how everyone seems to have a song that goes, “Na na na ...” They then went through various examples, including Journey’s "Lovin’, Touchin’ Squeezin’" before saying that every band had ripped off the ultimate "na na na" song, before playing the end of The Beatles' "Hey Jude." Huge applause here.

He then introduces Christian Cullen on keys, who messes around before being joined by Kelly Keagy, who starts singing "Sentimental Street" then the whole band comes out and joins in. Excellent! Great song.

"Eddie's Comin' Out Tonight" from Dawn Patrol is next, then "Four In The Morning" from Seven Wishes then "When You Close Your Eyes" from Midnight Madness. They close the set with a breathtaking, rip-roaring version of "Don’t Tell Me You Love Me," an absolutely killer ending to the set!

No way is this crowd going to give up yet, and they keep shouting and clapping for more. Out they come again with Kelly Keagy saying, “Well, I guess there are still two songs that you guys know all too well, that we haven’t played for you yet, right?”

He was right as Christian (how appropriate!) Cullen starts playing "Sister Christian" and all the band slowly walk out to join in as the song builds and rips into the chorus. What a classic song!

You know full well, you have NOT been to a Night Ranger show though if you don’t hear the constant set closer. As Jack always tells everyone, “Remember, '(You Can Still) Rock In America!'" It’s an absolutely storming close to a really great set.

My wife and I went to the show with a friend of ours who never really thought that much of Night Ranger in the past, but came away saying that these guys totally have it together. He was blown away by their sheer energy and fantastic harmony vocals.

What can I say? I’d waited four years to see these guys come back anywhere near Detroit and they did not disappoint. They certainly more than prove that you can, STILL ROCK IN AMERICA!