April Wine/Foreigner..July 27th 1993/Thunder Bay Ontario

Smack Dab in the middle of GrungerMania comes 70s/80s Rock Dawgs April Wine and Foreigner playing a one and only double bill full headlining set right smack in Good Ol Tbay….

The promoters pumped this one as the only Canadian Date these two AOR Titans would share a stage together  in 1993. Of course with my trusty sidekick Tbone off to the show we go!

April Wine in 1993 had a bounce back with their career with the Attitude release going Gold in Canada whereas Foreigner were back in the ring with singer Lou Gramm after he split in the late 80s and so here they be….

April Wine were up first and it’s basically all the cats from the heyday of the Wine in the early 80s except for the guitarist who went by the name (James! You ready for this…) Steve Seagal…not that Segal Ha! Along with Segal on guitar you had Brian Greenway/Myles Goodwyn an Wowzers Tbone, this is triple ax attack right before our eyes! Not the first time though the Gardens hosted a band with Three guitarists in tow. That Honour goes to Ted Nugent who back in 1981 showed up to Tbay with a Commnado Squad and obliterated my hearing (review of that show can be found on this site). Rounding out The Winer’s were Jerry Mercer on Drums and Jim Clench(RIP) on Bass.

April Wine were a real good band this night and aside from plugging a few tracks from the Attitude release it was a Greatest Hits Fest.

Still recall the opening 3 pack of songs that were played with opener Anything You Want which led into I Like To ROCK. Ooowatanite with the ringing Bell and Police Cherry Lights going off with Clench handling the lead vocals as well. Sign OF The Gypsy Queen/Roller/Just Between You And Me/Enough Is Enough so as you can see by these tracks that it was indeed a Hits set and why not!

Come to think of it this is the only time I have ever seen April Wine Live which is alright as they were here a few weeks back in early July  at our Blues  Festival (GAH!)  by all intent and purposes  were quite good from what I heard but man them Wine  dudes are looking ancient in 2016….

Back to 1993…..

After a quick turnover Foreigner with Lou and Mick Jones took to the stage and blasted out I believe Double Vision  that moseyed into one of my  fav tracks of Foreigner ever and that would be Long Long Way From Home ( the swirly synth at the beginning gets me every time).

Like April Wine everything Foreigner plays you’ve heard. Head Games/Dirty White Boy/Juke Box Hero(with an inflated Juke box Prop for added pleasure) basically its all hits of course I Want To Know What Love Is is dealt but man what can you do? I don’t wanna hear it but many that night did soooo stuff it Deke’s!

One kooky part of the show was that bass player Bruce Turgon did a solo which at first was kinda Gah! Than he just went bonkers riffing like a lunatic locked in with the drummer and they did a bass and drum dual thing and it was quite good including Turgon flinging back his long hair and soaking it in…

Me and Tbone giggled like a couple of school girls as we said Turgon was frozen from the 80s and was  starting to thaw in the warm July 1993 Tbay weather ….Needless to say he was amusing….

It was good to see Wine N Foreigner show up to Tbay when the musical climate was not favourable  for bands of their genre and basically sell out about 4000 tickets and put on a real good rock show! Which band was better that night? Too be totally fair they were both real good so it was $29 well spent!(1993 Prices)….

 

 

Aerosmith Live (Get A Grip Will Ya!)

Aerosmith/Jackyl/June 13 1993/Minneapolis Minnesota/Target Center

June 93 and Aerosmiths Get A Grip tour touches down in Minnie and its the 8th date of the tour that will last til Dec of 1994! (224 shows played)Now that is a tour! Having seen Aero twice on the Pump Tour it was a no brainer so myself,Oinks,Andre and a new recruit Budge made the trek!

Jackyl was the opening band and if you recall there deal there lead singer would cruise the stage with a chainsaw during there hit tune The Lumberjack! Jackyl was promoting there second record Push Comes To Shove and they were a decent live act kinda had some ACDC in em! At the time Jackyl had a few things going for them and they were on Aerosmiths label(Geffen Records),they were produced by Bruce Fairbairn(Aerosmiths producer),they recorded in Vancouver (like Aerosmith) had the same record company guy(John David Kalodner) so yeah getting added to the Get A Grip tour was a no brainer like Aero is not worried about Jackyl! Overall a good show they put on kinda redneckish! But amusing!

Must mention that both these vids are from the Woodstock 94 show! Aero is playing in the rain at night so Ya can’t see the crowd much but earlier in the day Jackyl played and man check out the crowd shots there’s some interesting crowd( AHEM! )interactions to,say the least! Hahaha…

So now back to Minneapolis and Aerosmith and the first thing I noticed is Aero has stripped the stage set back down to the basic stage amps/Drum riser and huge lighting rig! Gone is the big rooftop stage of the Pump tour and it’s simple Simon but for Aero it’s the music not the gimmick so….

Those tribal drums start off beating and around Joey Kramers drums is a curtain and you can see the silowhets of each Guy on the curtain and there’s the top hat of  Steve Tyler and bam curtain drops and it’s time to Eat The Rich! What a great opener love how the bass and guitars are synced and this tune reeks heavy AeroRock! Man I still to this day love this song…..we go from Eat The Rich right into the title  track of the newly released Album with Get A Grip! Steve and the boys go from telling us to Get A Grip right into Fever!

So if we’re keeping score the first three Aero tunes played live are right from the new album! Holy crap that’s crazy it’s like Aero is saying here it is! C’mon and help yourself to some new music! I was Impressed  by this move I mean how many bands do that!? Yeah,not many like Kiss would ever do that!! Hahahahaha…..

So Aero keeps it rocking and it’s a blast from 1989s past and that’s Young Lust and there’s Steve kicking the harmonicas ass In it and man if Aeros Young Lust doesn’t get Ya jiving Ummm your brain dead! And here comes the real deal and thats….

I”mmmmmm Baaaaaaaaaaaaack,Back In The Saddle Again oh yeah my first time ever hearing this tune live and  man it does not get any better than this! Brad Whitford and Joe Perry just slam dunk the guitars on this classic! Aero goes right back to Get A Grip with Cryin so that’s 6 songs in and 4 are from the new album! I always dug Cryin I mean anything with Harmonica wins me over and Tyler can play the fuck out of that thing….

Of course in the crowd there’s the MTV kids and heres Rag Doll for Ya and the place goes cuckoo Over It! Last Child one of those cool little gems from Rocks is played followed by What It Takes from Pump! Steve-o than grabs his harmonica and tells the crowd about his Big Ten Inch Record and they blast thru that one at lightning speed!

Tyler introduces Joe Fuckin Perry and they launch into a rocking version of Walk On Down from Get A Grip and him and Brad Whitford just wail on the guitars plus Perry handles the Lead vocals on this as well! Great track!

Now its back to the debut from 73 with Walkin The Dog for the diehards followed by Janie’s Got A Gun for the MTV Aerogeneration crowd! Amazing that they can shift gears from material from 73 to 89 and not skip a beat! And the place goes bonkers for Dude Looks Like A Lady!

The coolest Aeroballad ever Dream  On is played and once again we go from 1973 to 1989 as Aero crams everyone into the(Love in A)Elevator! I love the guitar action in this song Perry and Whitford man there a great team! Flinging solos back like Tbone/Darr/Rugg(lifelong friends ) fling beer cans back!

To end the regular set its time for a double bubble pack from Toys In The Attic album with Walk This Way and the song Toys In The Attic! I was just walloped on the side of my head of that one two punch! I’m TKO’d!

Steve and the boys cruise back out for the encore which starts off with Livin On The Edge(great song!) followed by Sweet Emotion and the now the huge enormous lighting rig shifts around and forms a ‘A’ Train Kept A Rollin ends the show…..

Give Aero props man,8 shows into the tour and there playing 6 off of the current release(Get A Grip) for some i’m sure there would be some griping though the tracks they did play from it,I like so if you were at that same show as myself,Oinks,Andre and Budge and thought it was too many new tunes being played…well…GET A GRIP!

Also must mention that the show was not completely sold out as there was empty seats but those were in then nosebleeds,must still have been about 13,000 or so there ….